§ MR. BIGGARasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Why the examination fixed for the 6th May 1884 for Assistant Surveyorships of Taxes, comprising five subjects, is closed against the Lower Division Clerks in the Tax Survey Branch of the Inland Revenue who have passed in ten subjects (including bookkeeping, one of the five in the Assistant Surveyorship Examination), and is open exclusively to Second Class Excise Assistants who have passed in only six subjects, all of which are included in the ten passed by the Lower Division. Clerks; and, what objection is there to the reduction from ten to (say) six years of the time which Lower Division Clerks in the Tax Survey Branch of the Inland Revenue are required to serve before they are eligible for promotion to Assistant Surveyorships, seeing that, since 1881, the Higher Division Examination for Assistant Surveyorships has been abolished, and the standard of examination reduced in the proportion of thirteen subjects to five subjects, one of which the Lower Division Clerks have already passed?
§ MR. COURTNEYThe examination for Assistant Surveyorships of Taxes, fixed for next week, follows the special 1157 regulations drawn up less than three years ago. These regulations were carefully considered, and it does not appear desirable to re-open them without a larger experience of their working.