APPENDIX III.

LIMITS OF AGE AND SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION.

[Corrected up to December 31, 1878. Additions and alterations made after this date and up to the time of going to press will be found stated on the last page.]

GENERAL NOTICES.

1.-The Civil Service Commissioners can give no information as to salaries, duties, course of promotion, pensions, &c., except such as may be contained in published regulations and similar documents.

2. The Commissioners cannot advise candidates as to their course of reading, nor can they recommend particular tutors or places of education. Except where otherwise stated in the scheme of examination, no particular text-books are prescribed or recommended.

3. All exceptions which can be admitted to the ordinary limits of age are specified in the following pages: where no exceptions are specified, none are allowed.

4. The Commissioners cannot undertake to answer inquiries relating to cases which are not officially before them for decision, nor can they decide, except in the cases of actual candidates, questions respecting the application of the rules contained in the following pages.

5.-Particular answers cannot be given to inquiries which are answered expressly, or by implication, in published regulations and similar documents.

6. The Commissioners cannot undertake to send answers by telegraph notwithstanding that a reply may have been paid for.

7.-The Commissioners do not supply specimens of the examination papers used in any of their examinations, but copies of some of these papers are usually appended to the annual reports of the Commissioners,* and some are separately published from time to time, and may then be obtained through any bookseller.

8.-Notice of any Open Competitive Examinations which may be appointed to be held will be given by advertisement in some of the principal London and Provincial newspapers. The advertisements in the London papers will usually appear on Thursdays. The Commissioners can in no case record the names of intending candidates until a particular examination is announced, nor can they undertake to send a separate notice to any particular person.

*See Appendix VII.

EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS, &c.

***The complete Regulations respecting situations marked "Sch. A.” or "O. C." in this Abstract may be obtained on application.

[SCH. A.] Situations thus marked are included in "Schedule A." of the Order in Council of June 4, 1870, and are therefore open to competition under regulations framed or to be framed, in pursuance of Clause V. of that Order, by the Civil Service Commissioners, with the approval of the Lords of the Treasury. The "General Regulations" printed at p. 129 apply to all such competitions.

[O. C.] Situations thus marked are open to competition, independently of the clause above mentioned. Such competitions are not subject to the "General Regulations."

[L. C.] Situations thus marked are filled by "limited competition among candidates nominated by the heads of the Departments to which they belong.

[N.] Situations thus marked are usually filled by nomination, subject to a qualifying examination only, but they may be offered for competition at the discretion of the head of the Department.

[N. Cl. vii.] For situations thus marked certificates are granted under Clause VII, of the Order in Council of the 4th June 1870, which empowers the Commissioners to dispense wholly or partially with examination on evidence satisfactory to them that the candidate possesses the requisite qualificatio.s.

NOTE (a).-Some situations for which separate schemes of examination are here set down will probably be filled hereafter by clerks of the "Lower Division." See clauses 1-4 of the Order in Council of 12th February 1876 (p. 13).

TABLE OF RULES AND REGULATIONS.

SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION AND LIMITS OF AGE.

In all cases where not otherwise ordered, candidates are required to be of the prescribed age on the first day of their examination. The manner in which the limits of age are understood by the Civil Service Commissioners is shown by the following example:If the rule is that persons must be between 17 and 20 years of age on the 1st of January in any year, a candidate born on the 1st January would be admitted on the 17th, and also on the 20th anniversary of his birth, but not on the day preceding the former, nor on the day succeeding the latter of these anniversaries.

* By the 4th of the General Regulations (see p. 129) it is provided that in reckoning age for competition the following allowances will be made, viz., (1) members of the military and naval services (whether commissioned or non-commissioned) 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. Similar provisions are contained in the Regulations applicable to Lower Division Clerkships.

+ The following is a list of departments to which Class I. clerks have been assigned:-Civil Service Commission; Colonial Office; Ecclesiastical Commission; India Office (Correspondence Department); Lunacy Commission; Patent Office; Post Office (Secretary's Office, Grade I.); Record Office, England; Record Office, Ireland; Treasury; Inland Revenue (Assistant Surveyor of Taxes).

The following is a list of the Departments to which Lower Division Clerks (men or boys) have been assigned:-Admiralty; Army Purchase Commission; Charitable Bequests Commission (Ireland); Charity Commission; Chief Secretary's Office, Ireland; Civil Service Commission; Colonial Office; Constabulary, Ireland, Inspector-General's Office; Customs; Dublin Metropolitan Police (Commis sioners' Office); Dublin Metropolitan Police (Divisional Offices); Education Office; Exchequer and Audit Office; Fisheries Inspector's Office, Ireland, Friendly Societies Registry; Home Office; Inland Revenue; Judge Advocate General's Office; Local Government Board (England); Local Government Board (Ireland); Lunacy Commission, Scotland; Mint; National Education Office, Ireland; Patent Ollice; Paymaster-General's Office, including Chancery Pay Oflice; Post Office; Prisons Service (Ireland); Prisons Department, Scotland; Privy Council Office; Public Works Loan Office; Public Works Office, Ireland; Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office (Scotland); Reformatories' Office; Registrar-General's Office, England; Registrar-General's Office, Scotland; Registrar General's Office, Ireland; Science and Art Department; Seamen's Registry Office; Trade (Board of); Treasury; Veterinary Department; War Office; Office of Woods (Quit Rent Office, Dublin); Works (Office of.)