§ MR. A. ROCHETo ask the Postmaster-General if the superintendent of telegraphs and some of the overseers in the Cork telegraphs are at present daily performing, for considerable periods, the work of ordinary telegraph operators, and, if so, will he consider the necessity of increasing the Cork telegraph staff, as the employment of these officials as operators is an economic loss to the Department.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The hon. Member appears to have been misinformed. I am assured that it is not a fact that the superintendent of telegraphs and some of the overseers 982 at Cork are at present daily performing, for considerable periods, the work of ordinary operators. Indeed, under normal conditions the present force of sorting clerks and telegraphists on the telegraph side at Cork is in excess of the requirements, and it is proposed to adjust it in connection with a revision now in hand. Of course, on exceptional occasions, it is not at all unusual for a supervising officer at any office to render temporary assistance at the instruments for a short time, provided that the proper supervision of the duties is not thereby interfered with, and this seems to have been the case at Cork.