EXAMINATION FOR THE APPOINTMENTS OF EXAMINING OFFICER AND GAUGER IN HER MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS. THESE offices are now filled partly by selection and partly by competitive examination, and are open to Principal Coast Officers, Out-Door Officers, Watermen, and Boatmen who have not less than three years' good service. No Officers are allowed to compete whose general conduct has not been satisfactory. Two Examinations are held-the preliminary at the ports where the officers may be stationed; and the competitive, for all Officers who pass the preliminary, at a selected number of the large ports. The office of Gauger in the Port of London is open only to the London Out-Door Officers; but that of Examining Officer in London, and at the Out-ports, is open to all Out-Door Officers in the service. The successful candidates at these Examinations are placed on probation for a period of three months—it being understood that they are to be instructed in the performance of any duties for which they may not be fully competent, and that their appointment will not be confirmed until they are reported to be fully qualified for the performance of the several duties they will have to discharge. The following papers were set to the Candidates for the appointment of Examining Officer at the competitive Examination held in January, 1876 : ARITHMETIC. One hour and three quarters allowed. 1. A cubic foot of gold weighs 19,259 ounces avoirdupois ; find its weight in hundred-weights, &c. 2. Convert 9 ozs. 17 dwts. into grains. 3. If 14 lbs. of rice cost 6s, how much will 356 lbs. cost at the same rate? 4. If a person purchases 12 articles, one of which costs 2s ; two cost 48 each; two 5s each; and seven 8s each; what did he pay on an average for each article? 5. Sold cloth at 18s a yard, and lost 5 per cent, upon it; what did it cost? 6. What is the interest on £1,000 for 1 year 3 months, at 5 per cent? 875 7. Reduce to its simplest term? 8. Convert 3 cwts. 3 qrs. 8 lbs. into the decimal of a ton 10. Convert 5 hrs. 48 mins. 48 secs. into the fraction of a day. 11. What will the digging of the foundation of a house 68 feet long, 33 feet broad, and 5 feet deep, come to at is 3d per solid yard? 12. Three persons, A, B, and C, purchased a ship, of which A paid for, B for %, and C paid £400; what part of the ship had C, and what did A and B pay? The working of each question is to be shown with the answer. COMPOSITION. One hour and a quarter allowed. Write a paper of not less than 40 lines on any one of the following subjects: 1. Have reduced hours of labour been productive of benefit to the working classes? 2. The advantages and disadvantages of competitive exami nations. 3. The probable results of the visit of the Prince of Wales to India. DICTATION. The story of the burning of the " Cospatrick," as now fully told by the survivors, must be regarded as one of the most frightful exhibitions of the impotence, misery, and agony to which human beings may be reduced which have ever been recorded in an authentic narrative. The three worn and wasted men who yesterday reached London, snatched, by the skin of their teeth, from a horrible death, and from a far more horrible struggle for life, are an appalling contrast to the vigorous and hopeful community, not less in number than many an English village, which sailed from Greenwich last September. It is well that they lived to tell the tale, at whatever cost, physical or moral; for unless the public mind is callous, and shipowners and captains reckless to the point of barbarity, it should be rendered impossible for any future crew of sailors or passengers to be exposed to a similar fate. The whole story indeed, though perfectly consistent, is in most respects so astonishing that we can hardly doubt there are some circumstances, as yet unrevealed, which would partly account for it. The hope may still be cherished that more suurvivors will be found. It must be a faint one, for though we are now assured that another boat got away from the wreck under the charge of the first officer, we also know that she was only so far better provided than the other, that she had two oars and a rudder, instead of only an oar and a half. PRACTICAL QUESTIONS. One hour and a half allowed. 1. State the duties of an Examining Officer on the first arrival of a vessel from foreign. 2. What course would you adopt if the vessel had yellow fever or cholera on board? 3. How would you rummage a steam vessel from Rotterdam with general cargo, and a sailing vessel from the Baltic with grain in bulk ? 4. Would you be justified under any circumstances in leaving out stores at the first rummage of a vessel, and what would you do with the surplus stores? 5. What course would you pursue under the following circumstances? If you found on board a vessel, packages addressed to the Royal Family, or to official personages, If the vessel had passengers on board, If you found a concealment of 20 pounds of tobacco in the master's cabin, which was owned to by him. 6. If, when you visited a vessel upon which Out-Door Officers had been boarded, your hail was not answered, how would you proceed? 7. Would you clear part of the hold of a vessel before all her inward cargo was discharged, and allow the outward cargo to be taken on board? 8. In 11 bottles of Geneva, each measuring 44 gills, 17 u. p., what quantity would there be for duty, and how would you describe it? 9. Are there any restrictions upon the importation of wine, spirits, cordials, and tobacco; if so, state them? 10. What goods, if any, can be landed before report or atry? 11. If you had free entries for five casks of naphtha, four cases of silk manufactures, two cases of eggs, and one case of cutlery, describe the nature and extent of the examination you would make of each description of goods? 12. How would you ascertain the quantity for duty in a cask of wine and a cask of brandy? The following questions were given at the last Examination for the office of Gauger. ARITHMETICAL QUESTIONS. Forty-five minutes allowed. 1. How many cubic feet of brickwork are there in a wall, measuring 427 feet 6 inches long, 13 feet 4 inches high, and 1 foot 2 inches wide? 2. If the cost of 1,737 gallons Geneva 11 u. p. in bond were 3s 9d per gallon, at what price per gallon duty paid must it be sold to pay the importer a profit of 12 per cent., the duty being calculated at 10s 5d per gallon? 3. If 2,432 gallons of wine costing 4s 7d per gallon were blended with 4,976 gallons of wine worth 1s 5d per gallon, both liable to the duty of 2s 6d per gallon, what would be the cost per dozen reputed quarts, duty paid, including 2s 2d a dozen for the expense of bottling? 4. If 273 chests Assam tea, weighing 93 lbs. each, and worth in bond 1s 5d per lb., were bulked with 562 chests of China tea, each weighing 97 lbs., and worth 9d per lb. in bond, what would be the average cost per lb. in bond; and what would be the cost of the whole duty paid, after deducting a discount of 2 per cent. 5. From £4,176,295, 13s 7d subtract £3,795,148, 16s 10d, and shew the interest upon the balance at 34 per cent. for 15 months. 6. Multiply 9715 by 43,7%. The working of each question to be shown with the answer. COMPOSITION. One hour and a half allowed. Write a paper of not less than forty lines on any one of the following subjects : 1. Whether an excess of exports over imports, or of imports over exports (commonly described as "the balance of trade"), is most indicative of the prosperity of a nation? 2. On the reasons for and against retaining our colonies. 3. On the relative advantages of the Civil Service, and of commercial pursuits as a means of livelihood. PRACTICAL QUESTIONS. To be answered on separate paper. 1. Name the Gauging instruments, state how they are used, and give the values of the dimensions taken by each of them. 2. Describe the casks in which wines and spirits are usually imported, and state what are the allowances generally made upon the length of each. 3. If sent to gauge wines or spirits in casks, how would you proceed to ascertain the contents of each cask? 4. Describe a vatting or blending, and a bottling operation respectively, and state the regulations applicable to each. 5. Can spirits be reduced with water in bond, and bottled for home consumption? 6. What are the regulations under which wine may be fortified in bond? 7. Is there any limit to the size of the bottles which may be used for bottling wines and spirits in bond for exportation? 8. What are the restrictions upon the importation of spirits? 9. In regauging casks of spirits removed under bond, what would you consider to constitute an excessive deficiency? 10. Are Hambro' spirits usually imported in well made casks, and how would you ascertain the strength of the spirits contained in them? 11. What fractions of a gallon are used in charging the duties upon wines and spirits respectively? 12. How would you return for duty the following articles :Fruit preserved in brandy, absinthe, Geneva, eau de Cologne, curaçoa, naptha, not crude, chloral hydrate, and iodide of ethyĺ? 13. Describe the difference between methylic alcohol and ethylic alcohol. 14. Are samples of perfumed spirits allowed to be taken without payment of duty? 15. What renders spirits liable to duty as mixed spirits? 16. How would you ascertain the duty upon champagne, sherry, and Sauterne, imported in bottles? 17. Is wine bottled in bond admissible for home consumption, and is the merchant entitled to a sample of it free of duty? 18. Show by the pen what is the quantity for duty in casks of spirits of the following dimensions and strengths 1 cask-full, 46.7, 25.8, 27.5, strength 3.7 u.p. 1 cask containing 117 gallons 35.7 o.p. 19. State the quantities for duty in the following cases of brandy, and return it under its proper denomination :— 22 cases, each 12 bottles, each 4 gills 13.1 up. 20. In a cask of 111 gallons content, the bung dimensions being 29.8, and the wet 14.9, show by the pen the ullage. |