Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 14 Mai 1924.
I hope this Resolution is sufficiently wide in its terms to cover the very hard case of the older servants, and I hope the authorities, in administering the Bill, will take care not to pack off these old people with one, or at the most two, year's salary. The salary is extraordinarily low, and these poor people have been hardly able to keep body and soul together. I do not suppose there is anyone who has not come in personal touch with the administration of the County Courts Act who can realise the frightful monotony of the work. It is one of the features which makes one desire more to sympathise with those who have borne the burden of many years, either in the office of the registrar or of the high bailiff. Of course, in the smaller cases where the registrar has been a practising solicitor, there has been the general practice of the office and they have been able to fill up their time. But that is not the type of clerk I have in my mind. I am speaking of Metropolitan clerks and County Court clerks in large towns, where their whole life is given up to it, and I sincerely hope, when we come to deal with it in Committee, we shall find the Government prepared to accept Amendments to make it perfectly clear that the clerks are to be adequately remunerated. Something has been said about the salaries of County Court Judges. There again, undoubtedly, with regard to the altered conditions in which we live and many other considerations which do not apply to other judicial arbiters, the position of a County Court Judge is entitled to very generous consideration at the hands of the House. I hope it may be found possible to make the provision which I think has been suggested from time to time by those officials in connection with the County Court system, and I hope they will be able to induce the Treasury to act generously towards them.