§ MR. SEALE-HAYNE (Devon, Ashburton)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education if he could explain to the House why no provision is made for the promotion of the Assistant Geologists on the English staff, who have become experts in the special work of the Geological Survey in the course of 20 years' service; and why a gentleman was added to the staff in 1888 and given senior rank?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COLNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE,) Kent, DartfordThe hon. Member's question does not quite accurately express the state of the case. There is nothing to prevent assistant geologists from being promoted to the rank of geologists to fill vacancies in the latter class. But the number of geologists is fixed, and the Treasury refused when we pressed in 1889 to be allowed to revert to the system which was in operation until the reorganisation of the Survey in 1876—namely, that the assistant geologist, on reaching the maximum pay of his grade and being reported efficient, should ipso facto be promoted. The reason for the addition of a gentleman to the staff in 1888 with senior rank was that the services of a trained petrographer were urgently needed, and could be obtained in no other way. But there was no hardship to any member of the staff. It was a new office, the qualifications for which were not possessed by any member of the existing staff.