§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, when the class of senior abstractors was formed, the hardship which would result from the Treasury only allowing half of the temporary service of the men concerned to count for pension purposes was considered, and whether he will state what steps the Treasury is prepared to take not to inflict hardships on men promoted to the establishment late in life; and will he explain why those writers employed before 19th August, 1871, and since promoted to better posts than abstractor-ships, were allowed to count all their temporary service for the purposes of pension, in view of the fact that the regulations in force for writers did not recognise that any service could be reckoned towards pension.
(Answered by Mr. Victor Cavendish.) When the class of senior abstractors was formed it was not considered that there was any hardship in allowing only half the temporary service to reckon for pension, seeing that the officers in question were not entitled to reckon any of 223 such service, and I see no reason for taking any other view at the present time. As regards the latter portion of the Question, I fear that I can add nothing to the Answer given by me on the 24th ult.†