§ MR. LEES KNOWLES (Salford, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that professional professors in Queen's College s in Ireland are placed by The Colleges Act, 1845 (8 and 9 Vict. c. 66), and the College Statutes, as regards appointment, tenure of office, and duties, in the same position as the Arts professors, and that they fulfil the only two conditions laid down by the Superannuation Act of 1859 (22 Vict. c. 26) as qualifying for pensions, namely, appointment by the Crown, and payment from the Consolidated Fund: and whether, considering that the professional as well as the Arts professors in the Scotch Universities receive pensions on retirement, he would explain on what grounds the Treasury, while admitting the right of the Arts professors, refuse to grant pensions to the professional professors in the Queen's Colleges in Ireland.
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe Queen's Colleges Act of 1845 does not bear upon the question of the pensionable rights of the professors. These rights (if any) are determined by the Superannuation Act 1859. Section 2 of the latter Act vests the ultimate decision of pension claims in the Treasury, "whose decision shall be final," and in the exercise of this power it has been the invariable practice of the Treasury to decline to admit as pensionable any officer who is not required to give his whole time to the duties of his office. The Queen's College professional professors, who are not so required, are therefore excluded. The grant of pensions to the Scotch University professors was transferred from the control of the Government to that of the Universities by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. Before that date they were pensioned, not under the Superannuation Act of 1859, but under the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858, which gave the Treasury no power to require whole time. Their case therefore is not, and never has been, analogous to that of the Queen's College professors.
§ MR. LEES KNOWLESasked who was the authority to determine whether the outside occupation of these professors was inconsistent with the performance of their college duties?
§ MR. HANBURYsaid the question did not arise whether it was the college as represented by the President of the Council that was the authority to determine whether the outside occupations of these professors were inconsistent with the performance of their college duties. It was a question whether they gave their whole time, and it was admitted that they did not, since they undertook private practice. It was because of that that the Treasury refused them a pension.