§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he will state the number of sorters who have acted as overseers in the circulation office of the London postal service during the last two years, the maximum time served in this capacity during the same period, the number of vacancies on the overseers' class, and the length of time these vacancies have existed; and if the Postmaster General will at once take steps to fill up all existing vacancies and ante-date the appointments from the time they became vacant.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINSixty-eight sorters have acted as overseers for longer or shorter periods during the past two years. One has been acting as an overseer for practically the whole of this time, that is to say, with short breaks. The only appointments now vacant are those sanctioned under a recent revision of the office, and steps are being taken to fill them at once. The appointments will, according to rule, date from the day upon which they are made by the Postmaster General.