§ SIR JOHN BENN (Devonport)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether the last financial year commenced in His Majesty's Dockyards on 1st April last; and, if so, are the men to be paid the extra two hours worked from 1st April to 2nd July, seeing that they worked 50 hours per week during that period instead of 48 hours which now constitutes a week.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The present financial year began on 1st April, 1906. It is not proposed to make any payment to the dockyard workmen in respect of the time worked between 1st April and 2nd July in excess of 48 hours a week. The date for the introduction of the uniform 48 hours' week was determined by the fact that the average 48 hours' week had been instituted on the 2nd July, 1894, and by the consideration that the adoption of any other date must necessarily have resulted in a pecuniary loss either to the Crown or to the men themselves.