§ MR. BROTHERTON (Wakefield)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will see that, when the Estimates for the Home Office are prepared for next year, some increase in the salaries for the County Court Judges is made, considering that since 1865, the last occasion when their salaries were fixed, an increase of work has been given to their Courts which has lengthened their hours of attendance, and in the case of provincial County Court Judges increased their travelling.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) The salaries of County Court Judges are not provided in the Estimates. They are charged on the Consolidated Fund, and cannot be increased except by Act of Parliament. The County Courts (No. 2) Bill now before Parliament proposes an increase of the salaries of a certain number of the Judges under certain conditions from £1,500 to £1,800. I see no sufficient reason for going any further at present.