or the Commissioners of National Education, Ireland, as the case may be, given in conformity with rules sanctioned by the Lords of the Treasury, has been notified to the Civil Service Commissioners. (iv.) In reckoning age for competition the following allowances will continue to be made as heretofore, viz., (1) members of the Military and Nayal services (whether commissioned or noncommissioned) may deduct from their actual age any time during which they have served; (2) persons who have served for two full consecutive years (a) in any Civil situation to which they were admitted with the Certificate of the Civil Service Commissioners, (b) in the Royal Irish Constabulary, or (c) as Registered Copyists in connexion with the Civil Service, may deduct from their actual age any time not exceeding five years which they may have spent in such service. 3. A fee of 15s. will be required from every candidate attending a Preliminary Examination, and a further fee of 5s. from every candidate admitted to the Competitive Examination. 4. Candidates must be over 17 and under 20 years of age on the first day of the Competitive Examination. 5. The subjects of examination will be as follows: 1. Handwriting. 2. Orthography. 3. Arithmetic. 4. Copying MS. (to test 6. Geography. 7. Indexing or Docketing 8. Digesting Returns into Summaries. 9. English History. 10. Bookkeeping. 5. English Composition, No candidate can be admitted to the competition who has not previously satisfied the Civil Service Commissioners that he possesses the requisite amount of proficiency in Handwriting, Orthography, and Arithmetic (including Vulgar and Decimal Fractions). With this view, Preliminary Examinations in these subjects will be held at such times and places as the Commissioners may appoint. Application for permission to attend one of these Preliminary Examinations must be made in the writing of the candidate at such times and in such manner as may be fixed by the Commissioners. 6. The number of persons to be selected at each examination will be published as part of the notice of every such examination. A list of the competitors will be made out, in the order of merit, up to this published number, if so many are found by the examination to be qualified for appointments in the Civil Service. 7. Each competitor named in a list will remain thereon until he attains the age of 25 years, unless in the meantime he has been appointed to a situation in some public Office. Candidates on completing their 25th year, or on receiving appointments, will be removed from the list. 8. From these lists the Civil Service Commissioners, on the application of Departments having vacancies, will supply, on probation, the requisite Clerks, whether for permanent or temporary duty. Selections will, as a general rule be made by the Civil Service Commissioners according to the order of the names on the lists; but the Civil Service Commissioners may select any Clerk who, in his examination, has shown special qualifications in any particular subject, if special application for such a Clerk be made by any Department. 9. No Clerk will remain more than one year in any Department unless at the end of that time the Head of the Department shall signify in writing to the Civil Service Commissioners that the Clerk is accepted by the Department. If he is not accepted, the Department will report to the said Commissioners the reasons for not accepting him; and such Commissioners will thereon supply another Clerk in his room, and will decide whether the name of the rejected Clerk shall be struck off the lists, as unfit for the Service generally, or whether he shall be allowed a trial in another Department. Civil Service Commission, S. W., 22nd May, 1876. REGULATIONS RESPECTING OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS, held under the ORDER in COUNCIL of 12th February, 1876, for BOY CLERKSHIPS in the LOWER DIVISION of the CIVIL SERVICE.* 1. Competitive Examinations of candidates for boy clerkships in the lower division of the Civil Service will be held from time to time at such places as may be deemed expedient. 2. These examinations are open, with such exceptions and under such conditions as may be laid down, to all natural born subjects of Her Majesty, being of the prescribed age and of good health and character. The undermentioned exceptions and conditions are at present in force (see (a.) (b.) (c.) (i.) (ii.) (iii.) pp. 11, 12). 3. A fee of 10s. will be required from every candidate admitted to the examination. 4. Candidates must be over 15 and under 17 years of age, on the first day of the competitive examination. 5. The subjects of examination will be as follows: 1. Handwriting. 2. Orthography. 4. Copying MS. (to test accuracy.) 5. English Composition. 3. Arithmetic (including vul- 6. Geography. gar and decimal fractions) | No candidate will be eligible who does not satisfy the Civil Service Commissioners of his competency in Handwriting, Orthography, and Arithmetic. The number of persons to be selected at each examination will be published as part of the notice of every such examination. 6. A list of the competitors will be made out, in the order of meri' he The Salaries of Boy Clerks will begin at 14s. per week and will ris 1s. per week per annum as long as they are employed. up to this published number, if so many are found by the examination, to be qualified for appointments in the Civil Service. 7. Each competitor named in a list will remain thereon until he attains the age of 19 years, unless in the meantime he has been appointed to a situation in some public office. Boys on completing the 19th year of their age, or on receiving appointments, will be removed from the list. 8. From these lists the Civil Service Commissioners, on the applica tion of departments having vacancies, will supply on probation, the requisite clerks, whether for permanent or temporary duty. Selections will as a general rule, be made by the Civil Service Commissioners according to the order of the names on the list; but the Civil Service Commissioners may select any clerk who in his examination has shown special qualifications in any particular subject, if special application for such a clerk be made by any department. 9 No clerk will remain more than one year in any department, unless at the end of that time the head of the department shall signify in writing to the Civil Service Commissioners that the clerk is accepted by the Department. If he is not accepted, the Department will report to the said Commissioners the reasons for not accepting him, and such Commissioners will thereon supply another clerk in his room, and will decide whether the name of the rejected clerk shall be struck off the lists, as unfit for the Service generally, or whether he shall be allowed a trial in another department. 10. Boy clerks will not be retained as such in any department after completing their 19th year; but they may after two years (or if admitted after 17 years of age, one year) of good service, to be certified in writing by the head of their department to the Civil Service Commissioners, compete under Regulation II. among themselves for so many men clerkships of the lower division as shall not exceed one fourth of the number of competitors. Separate lists will be made out of the competitors successful in the limited competitions, and selections for appointments to men clerkships will (subject to Regulation 9) be made alternately from these lists and from the lists of competitors successful in the open competitions. Civil Service Commission, S. W., 22nd May, 1876. * ** The following Circular was issued by the Lords of the Treasury with reference to transfers of Clerks of the Lower Division from one department to another: "20th March, 1877. "That transfers of clerks of the lower division appointed in pursuance of the Order in Council of the 12th February, 1876, from one department to another of the public service, require to be notified to the Treasury for previous approval, and also to the Civil Service Commissioners in like manner as if such clerks had been appointed under the earlier conditions of the Service, with this exception, that they will not be required to pass ny further examination, provided that the situations to which they are tionnsferred have been recognised by the Treasury as proper to be included requhe lower division." WRITERS. The first Order in Council having reference to the employment of Writers in the Service, was that of the 19th August, 1871, as follows: 1. That no temporary writers be attached henceforth to any establishment of Her Majesty's Civil Service except in conformity with the annexed regulations, or with such further regulations as the said Civil Service Commissioners may, with the concurrence of the Lords of the Treasury, issue in execution of their powers in that behalf. 2. That a week's notice, which may, at the discretion of the chief of the department, be extended to a month's notice, be given to all acting writers (except such as fall within the terms of this present Order) who are not willing to continue their services upon the terms of the regulations hereto appended. 3. That the temporary writers heretofore certificated by the Civil Service Commissioners for any particular department, and temporary writers now borne upon the Register of the Civil Service Commissioners, who have been respectively serving in the same department, continuously from a date preceding 4th June, 1870,* be excepted from clause 2, and be retained, but only so long as their services are required in the same department, at the salary or wages and on the other terms, which they are actually receiving, and were actually subject to, on 4th June, 1870,* without any addition thereto, or alteration therein, on account of service following that date. 4. That departments connected immediately with Courts of Justice, or with the registration of legal titles or instruments, be exempted from this Order so long as the chief of such department shall not have signified their consent to be bound by it. EDMUND HARRISON. The following Treasury Minutes, &c., referring to the foregoing Order in Council, have been issued: Treasury, 27th June, 1872. My Lords revert to an Order in Council, dated 19th August, 1871, wherein it was ordered, among other things: 1. That no temporary writers should be attached thenceforth to any establishment of the Civil Service, except in conformity with certain regulations to the Order now in recital annexed, or with such further regulations as the said Civil Service Commissioners might, with the concurrence of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, issue in execution of their powers in that behalf. 2. That a week's notice, which, at the discretion of the chief of the * See Regulations for Temporary Copyists, p. 19. department, be extended to a month's notice, should be given to all acting writers (except as fall within the terms of clause 3 of the Order now in recital), who should not be willing to continue their service upon the terms of the regulations thereto appended. 3. That temporary writers heretofore certificated by the Civil Service Commissioners for service in any particular department, and temporary writers at the date of the Order now in recital found upon the register of the Civil Service Commissioners, who had been respectively serving in the same department continuously from a date preceding 4th June, 1870, should be exempted from clause 2, and be retained, but only so long as their services were required in the same department, at the salary or wages, and on the other terms, which they were actually receiving and were actually subject to on 4th June, 1870, without any addition thereto or alteration therein on account of service following that date. My Lords take notice that many temporary writers were serving in Her Majesty's civil establishment on 4th June, 1870, upon terms which included certain annual increments of their wages up to a maximum according to their efficiency and good conduct, and also included certain provisions for terminating their service should it be no longer required. My Lords further advert to various communications showing that the said last mentioned writers had, up to the date of the herein. before recited Order in Council of 19th August, 1871, generally, although erroneously, construed the same terms to mean that (with the exception of misconduct) the same writers should be retained in employment on their then terms, as long as work of the kind which they had been been engaged to do were required to be done in the department where they were engaged. My Lords hold that in order to maintain clearly a distinction between temporary writers and persons serving in an established capacity in the permanent Civil Service of the State, it was absolutely necessary to substitute such terms as those in the said Order in Council of the 19th August, 1871, for the terms which included progressive wages, but in order to compensate the existing writers as far as is reasonable, for any disappointment which the alteration in the terms of temporary service may have occasioned to them, my Lords are pleased to direct as follows: Every temporary writer, under whatever name, who was on the 4th June, 1870, employed in any of Her Majesty's civil establishments and was engaged upon terms which included progressive wages, shall (subject to the provision by Parliament of the necessary funds) be allowed his choice of the following alternatives:— (a) Either to continue in his employment upon the terms laid down in clause 3 of the Order in Council of 19th August, 1871, or, (b) To retire, receiving a gratuity upon the scale of a pension commuted at five years' purchase, under sec. 7 of the Super |