§ MR. CLELANDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury how many assistant clerks are employed in the Secretary's Office and the Accountant—General's Office
| Office. | Number of Assistant clerks employed. | Scale of Salar. |
| Secretary's | 28 | £55–5–150 |
| Accountant—General's | 10 |
§ Speaking generally, these assistant clerks are engaged upon very various duties of a routine nature (such as registration, tabulation, extracting, &c, &c.), and analogous to, but of a lower quality than, those performed by very junior clerks of the second division. Work of this character in the Customs is not performed in the offices of the Secretary and Accountant—General, where no assistant clerks are employed, but it is centralised in the Statistical Office and performed by assistant clerks. The work in the offices of the Secretary and Accountant General of Customs is such as properly devolves on Customs clerks admitted to the service by examination similar in character to that for the second division.