§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, s.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware 995 that six female learners who entered the service at Belfast upwards of three and a-half years ago, and who have been fully qualified for appointment for almost three years, are still employed at a salary of 5s. per week, with little prospect of appointment for a long time to come; and whether, in view of his assurance that he was devising some scheme for the improvement of all those similarly circumstanced, he can now give any definite announcement on the subject.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) These learners, none of whom, however, have yet completed three years service, receive 16s. a week when acting as substitutes for absent officers, and 5s. per week when not acting. All who had served for two years or more might have received a higher constant rate of pay than 5s. a week, but they preferred the varying rates stated above.