MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, with reference to the passage in the Report of the Tweed-mouth Commissioners, page 3, which states that there should be a uniform payment for overtime throughout the service, whether it was intended to ex- 514 clude postmasters: and, whether he can state why postmasters or their substitutes are not allowed for overtime?
§ MR. HANBURYThe passage in the Report of the Tweedmouth Committee which states that there should be throughout the service a uniform payment for overtime, is held to apply only to those officers of the Post Office who had hitherto been allowed to claim for overtime. The arrangements under which the work of Postmasters is carried on will not, as a rule, admit of fixed hours being laid down for them; and their emoluments are calculated with reference to the fact that they may on occasion be called on to work overtime, and that their hours are largely dependent on arrangements made by themselves.