grade of each competitor shall be expressed by the whole number
nearest the general average attained by him, and the grade of each
eligible shall be noted upon the register of eligibles in connection
with his name. When two or more eligibles are of the same grade,
preference in certification shall be determined by the order in which
their application papers were filed.

6. Immediately after the general averages in an examination shall have
been ascertained each competitor shall be notified that he has passed or
has failed to pass.

7. If a competitor fail to pass, he may, with the consent of the board,
approved by the Commission, be allowed reexamination at any time within
six months from the date of failure without filing a new application;
but a competitor failing to pass, desiring to take again the same
examination, must, if not allowed reexamination within six months from
the date of failure, make in due form a new application therefor.

8. No person who has passed an examination shall while eligible on the
register Supplied by such examination be reexamined, unless he shall
furnish evidence satisfactory to the Commission that at the time of his
examination he was, because of illness or for other good cause,
incapable of doing himself justice in said examination.

9. The term of eligibility to appointment in the classified customs
service shall be one year from the day on which the name of the eligible
is entered on the register.

CUSTOMS RULE IV.

1. Vacancies in the lowest class or grade of the classified service of a
customs district shall be filled in the following manner:

(_a_) The nominating officer in any office in which a vacancy may
exist shall, in form and manner to be prescribed by the Commission,
request the board of examiners to certify to him the names of either
males or females eligible to the vacant place.

(_b_) If fitness for the place to be filled is tested by
competitive examination, the board of examiners shall certify the names
of three males or three females, these names to be those of the
eligibles who, standing higher in grade than any other three eligibles
of the same sex on the register from which certification is to be made,
have not been certified three times from said register: _Provided_,
That if upon said register there are the names of eligibles who, under
section 1754 of the Revised Statutes, have