§ MR. W. J. CORBETasked the Postmaster General, If it is with his approval that telegraph clerks are sent from the central and larger offices to the smaller provincial ones in the capacity of "relief" clerks to supply the place of those who are ill or absent during the annual leave-taking, a portion of the "assistant" staff of these provincial offices being at the time suppressed, and which, if provided, could readily take the place of the absentees, and thus save the Department the expense attendant on "relief" clerks together with the loss of service at the office from which these are temporarily withdrawn; and, is this one of the principal causes of so much extra duty being exacted off the clerks attached to the larger offices; if so, will he direct the district surveyors to see that, before entertaining any application for "relief," the proper "assistant" staff sanctioned and paid for by the Department is duly provided by the postmaster making such application?
§ MR. FAWCETT,in reply, said, that he would make careful inquiry on the subject referred to. In calculating the strength of the central establishment, care was taken to estimate the average number of relief clerks necessary to be sent to assist in different places.