§ Mr. CROOKSasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether during the last two years six officers have died in the Excise Department; and whether the doctor's certificate declared them to have died through overwork?
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§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThere have been forty-four deaths in the last two years in the Excise Service out of a staff of upwards of 3,000 on the active list. In no case was overwork certified as the cause of death, but in one case, where the cause of death was certified as suppurative laryngitis and tracheitis, the officer's medical attendant stated that in his opinion "indirectly the strain of overwork was the cause of death," and in three other cases, in which death was due to a definite disease, that death was accelerated by over-pressure.
§ Mr. CROOKSasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Excise Department is still being overworked through the administration of the Old Age Pensions Act; and what steps he proposes to take to relieve the pressure and safeguard the health of the officials?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe Excise Service is not being overworked, though the staff and organisation of the Department are not yet fully adjusted to the new conditions created by the great accession of work in connection with old age pensions and recent financial legislation. Arrangements to prevent over-pressure have been sanctioned and are being carried out with all possible despatch. Large additions have been made to the staff and temporary assistance is being given to officers where shown to be necessary, pending completion of the re-arrangement of work which is progressing rapidly, now that the work of the Department has assumed a more fixed character.