Page:Civil Service Competitions.djvu/19

3 {| align=center
 * Excise officers|||3310
 * Sorters, Letter Carriers and Mail Guards, exclusive of Rural Post Letter Carriers|||5079
 * Tidewaiters and Weighers|||2952
 * Messengers, Porters, Watchmen, Gatekeepers, Stampers, Packers, &c|||1277
 * |||12,618
 * }
 * Messengers, Porters, Watchmen, Gatekeepers, Stampers, Packers, &c|||1277
 * |||12,618
 * }
 * }

making a total of 12,618. From the same source we may ascertain pretty nearly what are the emoluments derivable from these situations. The amounts vary according to circumstances and localities, being, as respects the Customs and Post Office, higher in London than elsewhere, and in the large towns than in the rural districts. The salaries of Excise Officers, however, are the same all over the country. Taking the London scale as to the others, the average emoluments of the various classes may, perhaps, be fairly stated as follows:—

For country appointments, a deduction of, perhaps, ten per cent should be made with respect to all but Excise Officers, who enter at about £80 a year, rising to £85 or £90 in about two years, and to £100 in two years more.

The annual number of vacancies occurring in the ranks of these officers may probably be stated at about 700 or 800, that being the number of certificates granted in a year by the Civil Service Commissioners. There is, indeed, a considerable, number of less valuable appointments, for which, probably, some sort of competition might be beneficially established; but I propose to confine attention to those enumerated, as the necessity for some examination of the persons nominated to them is admitted by the fact that they are already subject to a test examination, conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners.