§ MR. REDDY (King's County, Birr)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury the number of Abstractors (Old Class) employed in the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen, the number promoted, and the number in receipt of allowances of £20 per annum; the number of assistant clerks (New Class) in this department, the number eligible for promotion, and the number promoted; what prospects are held out to the assistant clerks (New Class) in this department, seeing that the allowances granted to the Abstractors (Old Class) in 1898 are not to be extended to them, and that the initial salary of an assistant clerk (New Class) is only £55 per annum.
§ (Answered by Mr. Bonar Law.) There are eight of the Abstractors (Old Class) with long service in the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen. Seven of these have received allowances of £20 per annum within the maximum scale of their class. Six of the Senior Abstractors have been exceptionally promoted to the second division. 613 There are twenty-eight assistant clerks (Abstractor Class), nine of these are qualified as regards length of service, together with the eight of the old class, for promotion to the second division. Assistant clerks (Abstractor Class) rise to a maximum of £150 a year, subject to an efficiency bar at £100. Under the Order in Council of November, 1898, they are eligible in very special cases, after not less than six years service, for exceptional promotion, when vacancies occur, to the second division.