§ MR. THEOBALD (Essex, Romford)I beg to ask the Postmaster General what is the practice in submitting to him applications for Postmasterships; whether all applications are laid before him, or only those that meet with the approval of the Heads of Departments or Postmasters; whether any intimation is given to candidates when their applications are withheld from him; whether he can state the number of applications made for the Postmastership of Dalkeith, recently given to the daughter of the retiring Postmaster; and whether the majority of candidates possessed the necessary qualifications, and were in receipt of higher salaries than 24s. a-week, which was the salary of the successful candidate before her appointment to the post?
§ MR. A. MORLEYAll applications for vacant Postmasterships are submitted to me. There were 76 applicants for the Dalkeith office, 68 of whom were reported upon favourably. All but 13 of the applicants were in receipt of salaries exceeding 24s. a week. Miss Macpherson was the daughter of the Postmaster, and had managed the office for some years past. She had been for 23 years engaged at the Dalkeith Post Office, for the last 10 of which she acted as sorting clerk and telegraphist, and at the time of the vacancy was the senior on the staff. I may add that there was a strong local Memorial in her favour.