MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, whether the members of the existing class of abstractors in the Civil Service, recruited from the ranks of men copyists, are eligible for promotion to the limited class of abstractors at salaries rising from £100 per annum by £5 a year to £150?
§ MR. HANBURYThe new class of abstractors is recruited from boy clerks or boy copyists. They commence at £55 a year, and no one will reach the limited class referred to for the next 12 years. It is because of the lower pay of their early service that, after reaching £70, their increment is raised to £5. The moribund class of abstractors recruited from men copyists commenced as a rule at £91 or upwards, and reached £100 in four years or sooner. The reason for giving them an increased increment on reaching £100 does not, therefore, exist. The maximum of both classes is £150, and it is reached by both in about the same time.