§ *MR. MANSFIELD (Lincolnshire, Spalding)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Election Petitions Clerk receives a salary of £450 per year, although the work of his office can be done in about a week per year; whether he has just retired on a pension of £300 per year; and whether he will consider the advisability of adding the office to some other department with a lower rate of payment.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe gentleman to whom I understand the hon. Member to refer is a first-class clerk in the central office of the Supreme Court, receiving a fixed salary of £700 a year, plus a fee of two guineas for each petition lodged and registered. He has: not retired on a pension. He already performs the ordinary duties of a clerk in the Taxing Department, besides the work connected with petitions.