434
During the same period there has been delivered out of the Depôt :-
No. of Cases.
Approximate Weight.
bs.
For Sale in the Colony :-
Gunpowder, privately owned,
18,886
317,102
Cartridges,
do.,
2,512
597,666
Explosive Compounds, privately owned,
356
24,095
For Export:-
Gunpowder, privately owned,
7,139
124,193
Cartridges,
do.,
2,875
561,142
Explosive Compounds, privately owned,
1,794
89,604
Total,.
33,562
1,713,802
On the 31st December, 1899, there remained as under:
No. of Cases. Approximate
Weight.
lbs.
Gunpowder, privately owned,
Do., Government owned,.
Cartridges, privately owned,
7,378 50
162,875
1,000
1,226
204,550
Do., Government owned,
41
14,840
Explosive Compounds, privately owned,
192
9,640
Do.,
Goverument owned,.
Total,...
8,887
392,905
GENERAL.
23. As there appears no immediate prospect of any improvement in the accommodation provided for the work of the Harbour Department I desire to call special attention to the matter.
The present building was first occupied in 1874 or 25 years ago, the staff is practically the same as it was then, the pay taken on a sterling basis is less, and the tonnage has increase 1 from 6,528,000 tons to over 18,000,000 tons.
The present offices are small, badly lighted, badly ventilated and badly arranged, in fact the Harbour Office combines all the disadvantages of which we have frequently heard in connection with the Post Office and the Law Courts ; but being at the West end of the town and somewhat out of the European business quarter, it is out of sight and, I fear, out of mind.
As the Port Office of the largest Shipping Port in any British Possession abroad it is, to say the least of it, not creditable.
In 1894, I stated to the Retrenchment Committee as follows:-
The only way in which the enormous amount of clerical work, which goes on at the "Harbour Office is done, is owing to the fact that the clerks at work there-the first, second, “third, and fourth-are all men who have been in the Harbour Department for upwards of #20 or 25 years. They have grown with the work and it is only because they have grown "with it that they are now able to do it."
This statement I have now to reiterate, with one exception only, namely, that the fourth clerk has only been in the office for 14 years-though he was in the Opium Office branch 11 years pre- viously he came in when the first clerk retired on pension in 1895, and there was a general “fleet up" amongst the others on a diminished scale of pay.
The work continues to increase with the increase of shipping, to say nothing of territory, over- time work is the rule rather than the exception, and any temporary absence through sickness-a condition which happily seldom happens-is keenly felt by the others.
It is much to be desired that the New Harbour Office will shortly receive attention. The new site is now reclaimed and the sale of the old site would pay for building the new office, which sale, I under. tand, could take place any day "on time.”