I beg to ask the Postmaster-General if he will state the number of gentlemen now in receipt of annual salaries of £300 and over employed in the Savings Bank Department, Comptroller and Accountant-General's Department, Money Order Department, Secretary's Office, and other branches of the Post Office, who were promoted to the permanent establishment from the old boy clerks class after a period of probationary service. I beg also to ask the Postmaster-General if he will state how many appointments to first-class clerkships were made in the different departments of the Post Office during the periods 1887-1891, 1897-1901, and 1902-6; and how many of the gentlemen receiving these appointments had been originally promoted to the permanent establishment from the old class of boy clerks.

I may perhaps answer these two Questions together. I do not think I should be justified in authorising the collection of the statistics asked for, as they would involve considerable expenditure of time and labour out of all proportion to any result obtainable.