§ MR. HAZLETON (Galway, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will give the terms of the Treasury Minute of 4th January, 1871, constituting the office of Treasury Remembrancer in Ireland; and whether he will state what was the system in operation before the constitution of that office.
§ MR. HOBHOUSEThe information required by the hon. Member is given below. Treasury Minute, dated 4th January, 1871.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Financial Secretary state to the Board that they have difficulty in deciding to their satisfaction many questions relating to Ireland, for want of local information as ample and as easily attainable as in similar cases arising in England or Scotland. Such local information is especially needed on account of the frequency of appeals to the Imperial Exchequer from that part of the United Kingdom, and in their opinion, it could be best supplied by a financial officer, appointed by and responsible to their Lordships, and occupying a position that would give the necessary weight to his opinion, and enable him to obtain a general knowledge of details of administration throughout the country, and to represent the Treasury on Commissions and in other duties of a similar nature. They remind the Board that Scotland possesses such an officer in the person of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer, and it is evident that their Lordships appreciated the value of the service rendered by the late Mr. Henderson, when at his decease in 1869, they determined after minute and deliberate investigation to maintain his office as consultative, at a cost in excess of that required by its mere administrative functions. They further remind the Board that such an officer used to exist in Ireland. Up to 1837 the Vice-Treasurer and Teller of the Exchequer in that country was a high officer, possessing large financial powers. In that year Parliament empowered the Treasury to make regulations consolidating and simplifying the amounts of the Receipt and issue of Public money. The office of Vice-Treasurer and Teller of the Exchequer was in consequence reduced, and in lieu thereof a Paymaster of Civil Services in Dublin was created, an officer subject to the Treasury, who in addition to the functions which his name implies, was to undertake any other business which the Treasury might call upon him to perform. In 1860, on the death of Mr. Grey, the then Paymaster, this office was abolished, and the Pay Office at Dublin became merely a branch of the General Pay Office, 959 under charge of a clerk detached from the office in London. The Treasury, therefore, has now been for a period of ten years without a special and, confidential adviser in Dublin. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Stansfeld state their conviction that the experiment has not been successful, although the want has not been felt during the greater portion of the time, because the Board were able at all times to avail themselves the large experience and knowledge of Mr. Hamilton, their Permanent Secretary, and they submit to the Board that no time should be lost in supplying the deficiency. It is obvious that the Consultative Officer, to be of any service, must in that capacity be independent of all authority save the Treasury, in fact that he should, as far as possible, represent the Treasury in Ireland. It is also desirable that he should be attached to some existing Office, both for the sake of economy, and because his consultative functions will not engross his whole time. But there are only two Departments in Dublin to which such an officer could be attached, the Board of Works, and the Pay Office, and of these two Departments it is clearly the Pay Office only whose duties have any affinity to the local Treasury functions for which it is advisable that provision should now be made. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Stansfeld state further that inasmuch as the Clerk in charge of the Dublin Branch is about to retire, the consideration of a change in the constitution of the Pay Officer at Dublin ought to be entered upon, if at all, at once. They therefore recommend that no new appointment should be made by the Pay Office, but that when retaining the Dublin Office as a branch of the Paymaster-General's Department an office should be created resembling that of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer in Scotland, and holding, as near as may be, the same relations to the Treasury and Pay Office; that a sufficient salary should be attached to the post; that care should be taken to select a fully competent person to fill it and that he should in virtue of that office be placed in charge of the Paymaster-General's Branch Office in Dublin with the title of Treasury Remembrancer and 960 Deputy-Paymaster for Ireland, and that he should also perform the duty of Receiver of Constabulary without any remuneration in excess of the salary attached to his office. My Lords concur. Inform the Pay Office, and request the Paymaster-General to take no steps for detaching a clerk from London to conduct the business of the Pay Office in Dublin. My Lords will select an officer for the new post to whom they will assign a salary of £1,200. The necessary instructions defining his relations to this Board and the Pay Office will be given in the Minute appointing him.