§ MR. SEXTONasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the rule of the Civil Service Commissioners regarding allowances, in point of age, to candidates for appointments in the Inland Revenue is intended to exclude Irish National teachers while favouring clerks in Government offices and members of the Constabulary Force who desire to compete for such appointments; and, if so, will any steps be taken to place the National teachers on the same footing in this matter with other Civil servants of the Crown, by enabling them to qualify for competition for places in the Inland Revenue service by deducting from their actual age any time not exceeding five years which they have spent as National teachers, instead of, as now, debarring them from entering to compete after they have reached their twenty-second year?
§ MR. COURTNEYsaid, that National teachers were not allowed the extension of age referred to, because, in the first place, they were not Civil servants; in the next place, their special training did not qualify them for clerical work; and, thirdly, it was not for the public advantage that they should be encouraged to abandon their profession.