§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he can state why the usual practice of recognising seniority in the case of preferments in the Civil Service has been departed from recently in the case of an appointment to a checking allowance in the Statistical Department, Custom House, in which an assistant clerk was preferred over the heads of nineteen of his colleagues, against nearly all of whom no charge of official incom-petency had been made; and whether he will see that due regard is, in future, accorded to the traditional claims of seniority.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH, Derbyshire, W.)Checking allowances are assigned to those officers who, in the opinion of the Board of Customs, are the most competent for the work to be performed. It was in accordance with this principle that the appointment referred to was made.