§ Mr. FIELDasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state how many abstractors and new class assistant clerks in the Statistical Office of the Customs are in receipt of a monetary allowance for performing superior duties; how many of these allowances have been granted in seniority, and how many have been specially selected on the ground of special merit; how many assistant clerks or abstractors employed in the Statistical Office are engaged on or have performed duties of the higher nature performed outside the office; whether he can state the difference between the exceptional merit for for which Messrs. Cuddington and World have been granted a special increment and the exceptional merit of Messrs. Da Silva, Rule, Gill, and Dampier; whether he is aware that several men who performed work of a higher nature have been passed over; whether all previous promotions from assistant clerks in the Statistical Office to superior appointments have been made exclusively from the ranks of those special men having monetary allowances; and whether he will cause an independent investigation to be made into the nomination of Messrs. Da Silva, Rule, Gill, and Dampier over the heads of some 90 officers, two of whom were recently given a special increment for exceptional merit, and a number of whom are specially entrusted with duties recognised by grants of monetary allowances as being superior to the work performed by Messrs. Rule, Gill, and Dampier?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSETwenty abstractors and 18 assistant clerks new class in the Statistical Office are in receipt of checking allowances. These allowances have for some years past been awarded strictly in order of seniority. The possession of one does not, in any case, imply that the holder is of exceptional merit, and is not therefore a factor which is considered in nominating men for special promotion. If has not previously been necessary to go below the last man holding a checking allowance in order to secure nominees of a sufficiently high standard for promotion, but as there was only one clerk amongst the existing checkers sufficiently meritorious to be recommended, the Board of Customs and Excise were compelled to go lower down. None of the assistant clerks812W in the Statistical Office are performing or so far as the Board of Customs and Excise are aware, have been engaged in the performance of duties superior to those proper to their grade. Messrs. Cuddington and World were granted a special increment of salary on account of efficiency in the performance of the ordinary duties of their grade combined with long service, whereas Messrs. Da Silva, Rule, Gill and Dampier were selected from the whole body of assistant clerks in the Statistical Office as being best fitted for special advancement to posts in the general service outside which require men of higher mental capacity than is necessary for the performance of the routine work of the Statistical Office. I do not propose to hold any investigation into the matter.