§ CAPTAIN JESSEL (St. Pancras, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the attendants at the British Museum are the only class whose minimum and maximum salaries have not been raised since 1857; and that they are the only class who do not participate in the Saturday half-holiday; and whether, considering that all attendants who have entered the service of the trustees since 1887 are liable to serve an hour longer, and that the assistants, in addition to the increase of salary last year, have since 1857 received two rises in response to petitions based on the greater cost of living, the claims of attendants for like favourable treatment will now be taken into consideration?
§ MR. HANBURYThe attendants at the British Museum are the only class whose minimum and maximum salaries have not been raised since 1857; but appreciable improvements have been made in their position during that period by converting three classes into two, by reducing the number of the lower class, and by the grant of special allowances to 23 out of 155 attendants. It is, of course, not desirable to interfere with the convenience of the public, who visit the Museum in large number on Saturday afternoons. But, on ordinary weekdays, the younger attendants are frequently not required to give the full attendance for which they are liable; and the older attendants receive overtime pay if required to attend after 4 p.m. or 5 p.m (according to the season 988 of the year). When the staff of attendants are on duty for the full time during summer months they are allowed four Saturday half-holidays. The hours of duty for attendants appointed since 1887 are from 9 to 6 (instead of from 9 to 4, 5, or 6 according to season). In practice, however, the attendants at the Natural History Museum always leave at the old hours; and those at Blooms-bury are frequently allowed to do so. There is, of course, great dissimilarity between the position of the assistants and that of the attendants. The assistants carry on the literary and scientific work of the Museum and correspond to the upper Division of the Civil Service. The attendants are recruited either from the ranks of gentlemen's servants or from boys who have served an apprenticeship as boy attendants. The subjects for entrance examination are elementary, and there is no competition. The increased cost of living was only one of the many reasons put forward by the assistants for an increase in salary.