asked the Secretary to the Treasury the number of supervising assistant clerks in the Statistical Office, Customs and Excise; the duties which are assigned to the grade; how many clerks of that grade are performing supervisory duties; if any of them were performing the same duties prior to promotion to supervising assistant clerk; what was then the official designation of these clerks; and what are the qualifications required by assistant clerks for checking allowances, supervising assistant clerkship, and second division clerkships?

The answer to the first part of the question is twenty-two; to the second, to aid in the supervision and discipline of the office, and to perform work superior to that of the assistant clerks with checking allowances; to the third, all, regularly or on occasion; to the fourth, none of the existing supervising assistant clerks who were promoted to that position from the position of assistant clerk were before their promotion performing the full duties assigned to the grade of supervising assistant clerk, consequently, the fifth part does not arise. The three classes mentioned in the concluding part of the question are quite distinct from each other, and require varying degrees of intelligence and capacity.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that no further special increments can at present be granted in the Statistical Office, he will state what is the proportion of £10 special increments granted to assistant clerks in various offices, and on what authority such a proportion is fixed?

In fixing the number of special increments to be allotted, the Treasury has regard to the degree of special merit certified by the heads of the departments in which the assistant clerks recommended serve, and to the total number of such clerks qualified by service to receive a special increment. In so far as conditions admit, it is the practice to distribute the increments equitably over the service as a whole.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the decisions given by the High Court as regards admissible deductions under Section 57 of the Income Tax Act, 1853, have been entirely in cases where directors have claimed their expenses of travelling to attend board or other meetings of a company at its registered office; whether in the case of a person who has to carry out the duties of an office at two places the Inland Revenue authorities can arbitrarily decide at which of such two places such person shall reside; and, if so, under what Statute or legal decision?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. The Inland Revenue authorities have no power to decide where any taxpayer shall reside. In the case of a person who has to carry out the duties of an office in two places, it rests with the District Commissioners of Taxes to decide what amount of travelling expenses is necessarily incurred in the performance of the duties.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the following particulars with regard to the officers who have recently been appointed as Commissioner of Inland Revenue, secretary and assistant-secretary of Inland Revenue, and committee clerks in that Department: University, age, date of entry to the service, average annual increase of salary since entering the service, and present salary?

The particulars asked for are as follows:—

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give the following information with regard to the clerks who are now acting as private secretaries to the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of Inland Revenue, respectively: University, age, length of service, amount of special allowance, if any, total salary, including the amount of any such allowance; and how many years a second division clerk, entering the Civil Service at the age of eighteen and proceeding by regular increments, must serve before he attains the salary of £270 per annum?

The clerk who is now acting as private secretary to the Chairman of Inland Revenue was at Oxford University; his age is twenty-five; he has had rather more than one year's service; he is in receipt of a special allowance of £100 per annum; his total salary, including the allowance, is £320. The clerk who is now acting as private secretary to the Deputy-Chairman was at Oxford and London Universities; his age is twenty-four; he has had rater more than one year's service; he is in receipt of a special allowance of £50 per annum; his total salary, including the allowance, is £270. A second division clerk entering the Civil Service at the age of eighteen, and proceeding by regular increments, i.e., if he does not obtain promotion nor any special advance of salary, must serve twenty-two years before attaining the salary of 270 per annum.

asked the Chief Secretary whether corps of boy scouts, boys' brigades, Church lads' brigades, and cadet corps have now been prohibited by the Irish Government from becoming affiliated to the National Rifle Association; and, if so, what is the reason for this decision?

In the opinion of the Irish Government it is undesirable in Ireland, where no County Associations exist under the Territorial system, that boys should be entrusted with serviceable rifles and ammunition, and it has therefore been arranged with the military authorities that facilities for the obtaining of such arms and ammunition through affiliation to the National Rifle Association shall not be afforded. An exception is made in regard to cadet corps at military centres when the military authorities undertake the custody of the arms.

asked the Secretary of State for War whether it is intended to issue a new edition of the "Manual of Military Law"; and whether he is aware that a great many erasures, amendments and additions have been made since the last edition?

A new manual is now in course of preparation, and every effort will be made to expedite the issue.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture, what portion of the sum of £41,200, expended by the Board during the last five years in the administration of the Small Holdings Act, 1908, represents expenses incurred by county councils and repaid by the Board; what is the nature of these expenses; what is the present number of the Board's small holdings staff; and how many of them devote part of their time to any and, if any, what other duties?

The average annual amount repaid to county councils during the last five years is £26,800. This sum represents expenses incurred by councils in relation to the acquisition of land, including valuations of land, conveyancing expenses, cost of compulsory proceedings, staff and office expenses, registration of title and payments for compensation under the Small Holdings Act, 1910, and also the repayment of one-half of the expenses incurred in ascertaining the demand for small holdings. The Board's small holdings staff numbers twenty-three, of whom eight devote part of their time to other ditties, namely, the administration of the Lands Improvement Acts, the Universities and College Estates Acts, the Glebe Lands Act, the Settled Land Act, the Agricultural Holdings Act, and the Light Railways Act, and also the schemes for the improvement of live stock.

asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) in what cases have the services of the Board of Trade been requisitioned for the settlement of disputes as contemplated by the Royal Commission on Shipping Rings; and (2) what associations of merchants have been registered to date, in accordance with the recommendation of the Report of the Royal Commission on Shipping Rings, made in 1909?

Although isolated complaints have been made to the Board of Trade as to rates charged by shipping conference lines, no requisition has been made for the services of the Board in the settlement of any dispute of a general character between merchants and conference lines. No associations of merchants have been registered by the Board of Trade for the purposes contemplated by the Royal Commission on Shipping Rings.

asked the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been called to the publicly expressed complaint of Mr. H. J. Webb in regard to the changes in his telephone number; and whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter?

My attention has been drawn to a letter from Mr. H. J. Webb, which appeared recently in several newspapers. In it he complained that his telephone numbers were to be altered for the fourth time, at the same premises and under the same management. The fact is that no change whatever has been made by the Post Office in this subscriber's numbers prior to the present time, when it is proposed to combine his two lines on the Holborn Exchange and one on the Central Exchange under a single number. This arrangement will improve the subscriber's service, because each line will be available for inward calls when the others are engaged without the necessity for the calling subscriber asking for another number. Four years ago the National Telephone Company made a similar change for a similar reason with respect to the two lines which Mr. Webb then rented. This complaint is typical of many which appear in the columns of the Press.

asked the Postmaster-General whether the consent of the Treasury has been received to the creation of the sixty or seventy minor staff posts for second division clerks in the Accountant-General's Department of the General Post Office, as mentioned by Sir Alexander King in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service?

The answer is in the negative.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that persons desiring to send by post parcels upon which the duty has been prepaid to Australia from the Friern Barnet district are obliged to hand them in at the Finsbury Park office, that being the nearest post office for this purpose; and whether he will consider the advisability of making improved arrangements for this class of work in the locality concerned?

The arrangement under which the senders of parcels to Australia and many other places abroad can undertake the payment of the Customs Duty chargeable upon them is, as a rule, confined to head or branch post offices. I find that there are not many facilities for posting duty prepaid parcels in the Friern Barnet locality, and I am considering the extension of the arrangement to certain post offices in the neighbourhood.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether the Metropolitan Water Board are seeking powers in this Session of Parliament in connection with the levy of a deficiency rate under Section 15 of the Metropolis Water Act, 1902; whether his attention has been drawn to a Report of the Finance Committee of the Board of 2nd March, 1912, expressing the strong opinion that the machinery of the Act is cumbersome and involved, and that the exclusion of so large an assessable value as £2,000,000 from liability to contribute to the precept is fraught with serious injustice to the remainder of the area; whether the powers now sought, if granted, will remove these objections; and whether he will have a Return prepared showing the rateable value of each district within the water area (arranged in the order of the Return, No. 374, of Session 1902), together with the rateable value upon which the Water Board propose to base the precepts for deficiency rate?

The answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the third part of the question, the Bill which is now before Parliament does not propose to alter the incidence of the charge which was fixed by the Metropolis Water Act, 1902. I understand that the Metropolitan Water Board are preparing a statement giving the information desired.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether the recent grant of salaries in lieu of payment by fees to the vaccination officers of the Henley-on-Thames Union, amounting to £55 per annum, will continue in the event of vaccination decreasing to a small percentage of births annually, or ceasing altogether, and leaving nothing beyond a small amount of clerical work for the officers to discharge; and how he would propose to relieve the ratepayers from the burden of the quasi sinecures thus created?

The Order authorising the payment of salaries, amounting to £56 in all, to the three vaccination officers of the Henley Union, continues in force until the Local Government Board otherwise direct, and the salaries are to be the sums named in the Order, or such other sums as the Board may from time to time approve.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether, for purposes of obtaining a certificate of birth when applying for an old age pension, he will consider the advisability of reducing the cost from 3s. 6d. to 6d., the amount required for a certificate under the National Insurance Act?

Arrangements have been made with a view to saving claimants for old age pensions from the expense of obtaining certificates of their birth. Under these arrangements, in the case of any claimant whose birth was registered in England or Wales since 1st July, 1837, if the year and place of birth can be given, the pension officer may apply to the Registrar-General, with the object of verifying these particulars, if possible, without expense to the claimant. I may add that any alteration in the fees at present payable for certificates would necessitate legislation.