§ SIR C. PEARSON (Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he has considered a statement on behalf of those commissary clerks in Scotland who are paid by fees as to the injurious effect of Clause 13 of the Finance Bill upon their emoluments; and whether the Government propose to amend the clause so as to avoid the injustice, either by raising the proposed scale of fees, or lowering the proposed limit of value of the estates to which the fee of 15s. shall apply; and, if not, whether the Treasury propose to obtain statutory power to grant compensation for loss of fees in such cases, as was done in similar circumstances by the 12th section of "The Revenue, Friendly Societies, and National Debt Act, 1882"?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTThe statement has received consideration. The Amendments to Clause 13, which will have the effect of confining personal applications to officers of Inland Revenue to estates of £500 gross, will greatly modify the effect of this clause upon the emoluments of clerks. If, however, those emoluments, or those of the Probate Registrars in Ireland, who are paid by fees, are injuriously affected by the proposal, the Treasury will be prepared to compensate them, after the precedent of the Act of 1882, mentioned in the question.