§ CAPTAIN DONELANI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he has received a petition presented by the town postmen of Queenstown in May last asking for an increase of their maximum; if so, when may the petitioners expect an answer; and is he aware that the clerks who petitioned at the same time had not only received an acknowledgment of the receipt of their petition, but also an increase of 6s. on their maximum?
§ MR. HANBURYThe petition in question has been received. A formal answer regretting that their request cannot be granted will be communicated to the town postmen at Queenstown. It is the fact that the sorting clerks and telegraphists at Queenstown petitioned for an increase of pay at the same time, and that the recommendations of the Tweed-mouth Committee and the Treasury 957 regulations, which govern the pay of indoor officials, made it possible to comply with their request.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANWhy was not the petition of the town postmen granted?
§ MR. HANBURYThe payment of telegraphists and sorters is based upon a different system to that of postmen. In the last case the wages depend on the cost of living in the district; in the former it rests mainly on the amount of work done, and as the work increases it is possible to increase the pay.