it
233
receives $2,500 per annum with a House and table, and the demand which the entire change in the System of carrying on Trade has already caused for Assistants and Clerks, and is likely renders it no to continue to cause, longer a matter of surprise but absolute necessity to place the Servants of Government to on a liberal scale.
Should it be found hereafter possible to procure qualified persons willing to serve at lower rates, it will of course be the duty of the Chief Superintendent to reduce the expense; but although I make this remark, I do not anticipate anything of the kind. On the contrary, the influx of foreigners will have a direct tendency to increase the expense of living and the cost of every article of life and consumption beyond what is at present the case; and China is by far the most expensive Country I have ever resided in. Dollars here as compared hardly equal to Pence, and with reference to England certainly inferior to Shillings, an assertion which I advance from my positive personal Knowledge and experience
I am of opinion that it will be indispensably