[369] _Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, July 16, 1897, p. 352. Mr. R. W. Hanbury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and representing the Postmaster General: "But there were in the senior class certain men who, owing to the fact that they had been promoted by seniority without passing any examination, were not quite up to the normal average of the senior class." The reader will note that in 1890 no effort was made to remove the men not up to the standard of the senior class. The Government had to await the retirement or the death of the incompetent men. [370] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; Mr. H. C. Fischer, Controller London Central Telegraph Office; q. 2,305. The examination covers: (1) "Crossing and looping wires with facility and certainty. (2) Tracing and localizing faults in instruments. (3) Tracing and localizing permanent and intermittent earth contact and disconnection faults on wires. (4) Methods of testing the electro-motive force and resistance of batteries, and a general knowledge of the essential features of the various descriptions of batteries. (5) System of morning testing, both as regards sending and receiving currents, with the necessary calculations in connection with the same. (6) Making up special circuits in cases of emergency. (7) Joining up and adjusting single-needle, single-current, and double-current Morse, both simplex and duplex, and Wheatstone apparatus. (8) Fitting a Wheatstone transmitter to an ordinary key-worked circuit. (9) A general knowledge of the principles of quadruplex and multiplex working. (10) Measuring resistance by Wheatstone bridge." These subjects are the same as those prescribed for superintendents and assistant superintendents, but the examination is less severe. [371] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; Appendix, p. 1,083. [372] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; Appendix, p. 1,078; and q. 2,320, Mr. Nicholson, Chairman London Branch, Postal Telegraph Clerks Association. See also: q. 3,919, 4,135, 13,333, 13,344, 13,415, 15,142, and Appendix, p. 1,083. [373] The wages of the sorters of inland letters at the time were: $10 to $14 for the first class, and $4.50 to $10 for the second class. [374] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; Mr. J. C. Badcock, Controller London Postal Service; q. 2,190 _et passim_, and Appendix, pp. 1,063 and 1,074. [375] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 719 and following. [376] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 2,292 to 2,366, and 3,945 and following. [377] _Second Report of the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments_, 1888; q. 20,291 to 20,346.