MR. ACLANDasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether Mr. Maclean, principal clerk in the Customs at Leith, has been appointed collector at Sunderland, over the heads of almost the whole of the collectors in the service; whether he is aware that this setting aside of the claims of these officers to promotion in this instance, and in the case of the recent appointment of Mr. Walpole, late assistant secretary of the Customs, to the collectorship of Dublin, and that of Mr. Smith, a clerk in the London Custom House, to the collectorship of Hull, has excited a feeling of discontent and distrust among the staff; whether several of the junior collectors have been degraded to the position of superintendent and placed under district collectors, in consequence of the reduction and grouping of some of the out-ports; and, whether the Board of Customs has accepted the responsibility of these changes?
§ MR. COURTNEYThese appointments were made by the Board of Customs in the interests of the Public Service, and the Treasury does not interfere in them. The Board are not aware of any feeling of discontent among the collectors. None of them have suffered pecuniary loss owing to the changes in the Customs organization; but in some cases, where there is no revenue to collect, they have been styled superintendents instead of collectors.