§ MR. TUITE (Westmeath, N.)asked the Postmaster General, Whether surveyors and assistant surveyors in the service of the Post Office in Ireland are allowed at the rate of 20s. and 15s. respectively per day for every day during which they are absent from their respective headquarters; whether, in addition, they are also allowed the cost of first-class locomotion from place to place; if it can be stated upon what grounds this per diem allow- 1021 ance has been fixed; whether surveyors and assistant surveyors are generally absent on an average of 10 months in the year from their headquarters; and, whether any check exists as to the number of occasions they shall visit, or the length of time they shall remain in any particular place, within their respective districts, if such be optional with themselves?
§ SIR HERBERT MAXWELL (A LORD of the TREASURY)(who replied) (Wigton)said: The allowances to surveyors and assistant surveyors when absent from their headquarters are as stated in the Question, having been so fixed in order to cover the cost of subsistence. These officers, when travelling by railway in the discharge of their official duties, travel first-class. From the very nature of their employment a certain discretion must be left to them as to occasion and duration of their visits to the offices under their control; but a close check is kept on their movements, and in their diaries, which are sent up for inspection at short intervals, they have to account for every moment of their time. I may add that upon the vigilance, and—if I may use such a word—the ubiquitousness, of the surveyors and their assistants, the well-working of the Post Office largely depends; and the policy of the Department has been to keep them at their headquarters, not, as the hon. Member would seem to suppose, as much, but as little, as possible.