§ MR. STEADMANI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether since the issue of the Report and the accompanying recommendations of the Tweedmouth Committee, the maximum pay of the sorting clerks at Ryde has been raised to 41s. per week, and if the pay of the town postmen has been proportionately raised; whether a petition, dated 3rd August, 1897, signed by every established town postman at Ryde, praying that their maximum pay should be increased from 24s. to 26s. per week, has been received; and whether the Postmaster General has arrived at a decision on the matter; and, if so, will he cause his decision to be made known to the officers concerned?
§ MR. HANBURYThe maximum pay of the sorting clerks and telegraphists at Ryde was raised from 40s. a week to 44s. on the 1st April, 1897, under the general revision of scales of the indoor staff, carried out on the recommendation of the Tweedmouth Committee. No such general revision of town postmen's I pay was contemplated or recommended by the Committee. The petition of the Ryde postmen has been received and considered. A formal answer will be communicated to the postmen, expressing regret that the circumstances do not admit of their request being acceded to. The wages of sorting clerks and telegraphists are determined by the amount of business. But the wages of postmen depend mainly upon the cost of living, and therefore do not necessarily follow the wages of the indoor staff.