§ MR. KELLYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether it is the fact that the question of the re-organisation of the Statistical Department of the Customs has been under the consideration of the Treasury for nearly three years; what is the reason for such prolonged delay; and whether he can fix the date at which a final settlement of the question may be expected?
§ MR. JACKSONThe Report of the Departmental Committee on the Statistical Department of the Customs was received in 1888. I think it only right to say that the postponement of a decision on the recommendations of the Committee has not been due to any delay on the part of the Treasury, but to the necessity of first deciding questions suggested by the Report of the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments. I am glad, however, now to be in a position to say that an agreement has practically been arrived at between the Commissioners of Customs and the Treasury as regards the future status and rates of pay of the men engaged on statistical abstracting, and that the agreement now only requires to be put into formal shape.