§ MR. YOXALLI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state why the Civil Service Commissioners have recently required certain assistant clerks to undergo a further medical examination as a condition precedent to promotion to the second division under Clause 15 of the Order in Council of 29th November, 1898; and whether certain assistant clerks were promoted to the second division without such medical examination, and whether promotions from the second to the higher divisions will depend on such further medical test.
§ MR. HANBURYSome assistant clerks in the earlier part of the year 1899 228 were promoted to the second division without further medical examination, but the Civil Service Commissioners have since directed that for the future all shall be so examined. The reason for the change is that, while abstractors arc; assigned for service in one particular department only, the second division is a body liable to serve in any department of the State, and in some instances in foreign climates. It is usual for a more stringent inquiry into health to be held where such conditions prevail. The promotion of a second division clerk to the first division would not involve a fresh medical examination, unless the report of the authorities of the Department in which he had been serving indicated anything unsatisfactory in the state of his health.