§ MR. BIGGARasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Whether candidates for appointments to men clerkships, in the Lower Division, to the Excise and Customs, have to give their names to the Examiners instead of being known to the Examiners by numbers only, as in almost all other public examinations; whether any members of the Board of Examiners are Irishmen; whether, having regard to the dissatisfaction which exists among Irish candidates as to the results of recent examinations, he would take care that Ireland be fairly represented on the Examining Board, or else that candidates be known to the Examiners by numbers only; whether he is aware that, during the earlier years of the open competition, the number of successful candidates from Ireland for the above-mentioned appointments exceeded 50 per cent.; while, at recent examinations, not more than from 20 to 25 per cent, of the successful candidates are Irishmen; whether, at one examination for one hundred vacancies in the Customs, held on 17th November 1882, sixty-five of the successful candidates were Irishmen; whether his attention has been drawn to the January number of the "Competitor," a journal published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. which, commenting on this fact, observed—
It follows that, in a few years, the great majority of the officers in Her Majesty's Customs will be Irishmen.1163 The Examiners seem to have taken a hint from this remark, for, at the last Customs Examination for seventy vacancies, only 18½ per cent, of the successful candidates are Irishmen. The journal already quoted remarks—This is a much fairer distribution of the successful candidates than was shown by the previous examination;and, whether Irish candidates, who have passed in all the obligatory subjects more than once, but did not obtain places, have, in many instances, received letters from the Civil Service Commissioners stating that they have failed in one or more of these same obligatory subjects at recent examinations?
§ MR. COURTNEYIn these examinations, names, not numbers, are used. The Civil Service Commissioners consider that where examinations are held at many different centres the inconvenience of using numbers is greater than the convenience; and they are confident that, as a protection against unfairness, it is not needed. These examinations are conducted by gentlemen selected for each occasion by the Commissioners, and their names appear in the annual Reports of the Commission. No consideration is paid to nationality in their selection; but it is understood that some of them are Irishmen. The power of appointing Examiners is vested in the Commissioners by Order in Council; and the Government have, therefore, no authority in the matter. At the nine examinations held in 1876–7 for the three services referred to in the Question, about 41 percent of the selected candidates had been examined in Ireland. In the last nine examinations 28 per cent of those selected were examined there. The decrease is partly explained by the fact that the proportionate number of Irish candidates was less in the latter than in the earlier period. At an examination held last August 62 out of 100 selected candidates were examined in Ireland; at that of the 17th of November last the proportion was 13 out of 70, or 18 per cent; while at the last competition it rose to 23 out of 60, or 38 per cent. If the selection were in proportion to population, Irish candidates would only receive 15 per cent of the appointments. It has happened to many candidates, both Irish and others, that after passing in all the obligatory subjects at one examination, they have, at a subse- 1164 quent examination, failed in one or more of those subjects. I have not seen the magazine article referred to, and am informed that none of the Staff of the Commission had done so until this Question appeared on the Paper. But I may say that the suggestion that nationality is considered in such matters appears to me absurd, having regard to the nature of the posts competed for, and to the high character of the Examiners.