§ MR. FRASER-MACKINTOSH (Invernessshire)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the remuneration of the clerks in the Department of the Solicitor of Inland Revenue, Edinburgh, is inferior to that in similar Departments in London and Dublin; whether the Edinburgh clerks have memorialised the Treasury without satisfaction; and whether, if moved for, he will grant a Return of all Memorials, Reports, and Correspondence relating to 1177 the reorganisation of the Departments of the Solicitors of Inland Revenue for England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, passing between the Solicitors and clerks in said Departments, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, and the Lords of the Treasury from 1887 to the present date, also of the Report, dated 17th September 1889, of the Treasury Committee on the Departments of the Customs and Inland Revenue Solicitors in London, and Minutes of Evidence taken by the Committee?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. JACKSON,) Leeds, N.The Treasury cannot recognise a claim to increased salary in Scotland which rests solely on the ground that analogous duties are more highly remunerated in England or Ireland. The salaries of the Solicitors' staff in Edinburgh have been compared with those paid in other legal Departments in that city and in the offices of private Solicitors, and the Treasury is satisfied that when judged by this standard the applicants have no good ground of complaint. As regards the future, clerks employed by the Inland Revenue Solicitors in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin will be paid from a lump sum intrusted to the Solicitor for clerk hire, and at such rates as he may consider adequate to their services. I cannot consent to produce the Departmental correspondence relating to the organisation of these Departments.