§ MR. SNOWDEN (Blackburn)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state the number of boy clerks appointed in the years 1905, 1906, and 1907; and also the total number of appointments made to the following classes, viz., Second Division, Assistants of Customs, Excise, and assistant clerks, showing the number of these appointments which were gained by boy clerks excluding those gained by ex-boy clerks.
| II. Number of Persons certificated to certain other Classes of Appointments in the Civil Service during those years, together with number of those Appointments gained by Boy Clerks (excluding ex-Boy Clerks). | ||||||||
| Year. | Second Division. | Assistants of Customs. | Assistants of Excise. | Assistant Clerks (Abstractors). | ||||
| Total. | Number of Boy Clerks among them. | Total. | Number of Boy Clerks among them. | Total. | Number of Boy Clerks among them. | Total. | Number of Boy Clerks among them. | |
| 1905 | 184 | 47 | 96 | 6 | 110 | 4 | 246 | 124 |
| 1906 | 292 | 73 | 33 | 3 | 110 | 0 | 281 | 168 |
| 1907 | 208 | 60 | 55 | 7 | 176 | 2 | 232 | 136 |
| Total | 684 | 180 | 184 | 16 | 396 | 6 | 759 | 428 |
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Lords of the Treasury will amend the regulations made under the Superannuation Acts in such a manner as to enable the service given by boy clerks employed in the Post Office, Dublin, who have been promoted to adult clerkships in the Second Division, to be counted after the age of sixteen years, for the purpose of calculating pension on retirement after continuous service, in the same way that sorters, stampers, porters and telegraphists are permitted to reckon all continuous service after the age of sixteen years for superannuation purposes.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) Service as boy clerk, unlike the other cases referred to by the hon. Member, terminates
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I have received from the Civil Service Commissioners the information for which the hon. Member asks, namely—
§ I. Number of Boy Clerks registered in years 1905, 1906, and 1907.
| In 1905 | 596 |
| In 1906 | 923 |
| In 1907 | 1,100 |
| 2,529 |
§ automatically on reaching the age of twenty, and does not qualify for pension. I do not think that there are any "special circumstances," within the meaning of Section 3 of the Superannuation Act of 1887, which would justify the Treasury in reckoning it for pension when it happens to be followed by service in an established capacity.