§ MR. ASHLEY (Lancashire, Blackpool)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the land one mile on each side of the railway line at Nairobi, in British East Africa, is Crown property.
§ (Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The land in question was originally the property of the Crown, and, so far as the Secretary of State knows, no part of it has been alienated in freehold. The exact facts will be shown in the Return for which the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme has moved.
| Appointments. | 1904. | 1905. | 1906. | Total. |
| Second Division clerks | 27 | 53 | 81 | 161 |
| Excise assistants | 6 | 11 | 11 | 28 |
| Customs assistants | 8 | 11 | 5 | 24 |
| Customs port clerks | — | 2 | — | 2 |
| Total | 41 | 77 | 97 | 215 |
| †The title "boy copyist" was changed to "boy clerks" in 1902. |
§ I understand that the numbers of boy clerks (or boy copyists) serving or superannuated, who were certificated as assistant clerks (abstractors) during the same years are as follows: —
| In 1904 | 180 |
| In 1905 | 246 |
| In 1906 | 281 |
| Total | 707 |