Earl of RONALDSHAYasked the Secretary to the Treasury if the £30 checking allowances are given in order of seniority, subject to good conduct and efficiency; if so, if he will say why, in the recent allocation of four £30 checking allowances made in the Statistical Office of His Majesty's Customs and Excise, three were given to younger men; and will he see that a more equitable distribution as between the senior and junior men is made in the future?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The four allowances referred to were awarded to the four senior men whose efficiency reached the required standard. The abstractors, the seniors, and the tabulators, the juniors, are treated as one class, and it is not proposed to allot the checking allowances between them in any definite proportion.