DR. TANKER (Cork Co., Mid)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the alleged grievances of schoolmasters employed in convict prisons as regards classification; whether many of these schoolmasters, who have served for from 15 to 18 years, will be compulsorily retired before reaching the maximum pay of £200 a year; whether many of these men came into the service with the same qualifications, and whether the proportion of first to second-class men as fixed by a Treasury Minute is ignored; and if any steps will be taken to remedy the grievances complained of?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)I received Petitions from schoolmasters employed in convict prisons. These were considered, and in 1890 I recommended to the Treasury, and they sanctioned, an improved scale of pay to take effect from April 1, 1890, and in order to meet the complaints of slowness of promotion due to the diminished prison population, two special promotions were made to the first-class. All the existing first-class schoolmasters will attain their maximum before reaching the age of compulsory retirement. There is every probability that the three second-class schoolmasters who have served 15 years or more, will, by promotion, be able to obtain the same maximum. The arrangement sanctioned by the Treasury in 1869—namely, that the number of first-class clerks should be two-fifths of the number of second-class clerks—has not been ignored, and is observed at present.