§ MR. CAUSTONI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he will state the average length of service and salary, and the maximum of the (then) Lower Division in the Post Office Savings Bank prior to the introduction of a seven hours' working day for this body in January, 1889; whether he will also state the average length of service and salary and the maximum of the Second Class officers of the old establishment who have recently been ordered to work seven hours a day: whether both these bodies have been placed in the new Second Division of the Service with a maximum of £350 per annum, the immediate compensation for the seventh hour being in both cases £15 per annum: whether he will grant some increased compensation to the Second Class, who have only received six per cent, of their average salaries for 16 per cent, more work, while the Lower Division have received 14 per cent.; and whether the Second Class have been and are engaged on superior work to that of the Lower Division clerks, their juniors in the office?
§ *MR. RAIKESI can easily state the average length of service and salary of the two bodies of officers referred to by the hon. Member on a given date—say, the 31st of December, 1888. The first body of officers mentioned in the question had, on that date, an average length of service of five years, with an average salary of £113. The average length of service of the second body was 19 years, with an average salary of £261. Care was, however, taken in placing the officers of these two bodies on the new Second Division, to place them at the proper points of the new scales of salary, and to 1826 give to them the proper increment to which in each case they were entitled, so that so far from losing, they have all gained by the change which has taken place. No further compensation will be granted to either body, and it is obvious that the seniors were necessarily employed on higher work than their juniors.