§ SIR JOSEPH BAILEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the new arrangements with regard to gaols necessitate the immediate compulsory retirement of certain governors of gaols still able to discharge their duties; and whether the burden of their superannuation would fall upon the counties or boroughs served by the officers selected to be discharged, or whether under such special circumstances it will be charged on the general taxation of the country?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that 37 gaols had been closed, and, of course, a good many gaolers must have been thrown out of employment. As far as possible, those whose services were most valuable had been transferred to other gaols. With regard to those gaolers who had to leave the service, the actual pension would no doubt have to be paid out of the local rates; but the Treasury would take upon itself, under the Act of 1877, all that which was due to compulsory retirement.