§ MR. RITCHIEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Whether, under the new re-organization of the Customs, it is the case that Clerks now receiving £120 and £130 per annum, with seven years' service, are to be promoted to be First-Class Examining Officers at £230 per annum, over the heads of officials now serving as Examining Officers at £140 to £200 per annum, with from 18 to 30 years' service; also, Whether it is the fact that a Second-Class Examining Officer of the Customs, from an out port, has been promoted to be a First-Class Examining Officer in London over the heads of several Second-Class Examining Officers, now on the London establishment, who took higher places in the competitive examination at the time of their original appointments; and, if so, for what reason these officers have been passed over?
§ MR. COURTNEYSir, the facts stated in the former part of the Question are substantially accurate. The clerks referred to are appointed to newly-created posts, and for the good of the Public Service. The increase of salaries they will receive partly represents increased hours of work. No injury is inflicted by their appointments on the present second-class examining officers. As regards the second part, it is true that certain second-class examining officers at the out ports have, in the interest of the Public Service, been promoted to the first class in London. This has been done, because those officers have proved themselves better fitted for promotion than others, some of whom may have passed a better competitive examination on entering the Service.