§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the three clerks of the Central Office, Courts of Law, retired on re-organization in the spring of 1888 on £513 per annum, are different from the redundant clerks retired in October; and, if so, what was the occasion of retiring the former three at the ages of 33, 36, and 46 respectively; if he would explain what was the occasion of retiring three officials of the Board of Trade in 1888, on re-organization and abolition, on pensions amounting to £1,086, and whether there has been a saving on the whole establishment of the Board of Trade; and, what was the occasion of abolishing upon pension a draughtsman of the Ordnance Survey in 1886, and whether the operations of that survey have really been contracted?
§ THE SECRETARY (Mr. JACKSON) (Leeds, N.)The answer to the first Question is, Yes. As to the second Question, the clerks were retired in compliance with the recommendations of the Committee of 1887. In answer to the third Question, two of those officers were retired by the Board of Trade on a re-organization of the Patent Office, effected after Departmental inquiry; the 1419 third (Seamen's Registry) in compliance with the recommendation of a Committee which has this year inquired into the Office, and has recommended measures of reform whereby the salary list will be reduced from £19,000 to £10,000 a-year. The salary list of the Board of Trade, with its subordinate Departments, for 1888–9, shows a reduction of about £4,000, and a still larger reduction may be anticipated next year. The draughtsman served in the survey from 1866 to 1875, when he was transferred to the service of the Cape Colony, and was paid from Colonial Funds. In 1886 his Colonial office was abolished, and he became entitled to a pension on his whole service under the Colonial Pensions Act, 1887, Section 2. Of this pension the Colony pays the portion applicable to the Colonial Service, and also the addition awarded on the ground of abolition. The Superannuation Vote is only charged with the amount of the retiring allowance to which the man was entitled at the date of transfer in 1875.