§ SIR EDWARD WATKINasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If he will explain to the House on what grounds the application of the outport clerks of the Customs to be placed on a footing of equality with the Customs clerks in London was rejected on the 4th March last?
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in reply, said, that the grounds on which the application mentioned in the Question had been rejected was simply on the question of a difference in the rates of wages; which, as the hon. Member was aware, varied in almost every district. As the employers of labour generally were not bound by one scale of pay, so it would hardly be fair for the Government, as an employer of labour, to equalize the rate of pay all over the country, when the scale of local wages varied so considerably.