§ MR. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Great Northern Railway Company of Ireland has refused to institute competitive examinations in connection with clerical appointments, whilst the Dublin Corporation, the Belfast Corporation, the Great Southern and Western Railway, and other similar bodies have instituted such examinations; whether the manner in which the company uses its powers of patronage has been brought to his knowledge; and whether, seeing that the company derives its monopoly from Parliament, he proposes to take steps to compel it to open the appointments on its clerical staff to competitive examination.
(Mr. Lloyd-George.) Nc, Sir; I have no information on this subject. The 62 matter is one in which the Board of Trade have no authority to interfere with the discretion of the railway company.