would have been considerable, I was willing to mourn it, from my personal observation, and conviction of its necessity. Subsequently, I was prohibited from any kind of interference in such matters by the arrival of an Officer on the part of the Master General of the Ordnance (Major Aldrich), who proposed to remedy the deficiency by appropriating to the Public use, at an assumed value in some cases, and without remuneration in others, the Houses and Property of certain Firms and Individuals. To this proposal I refused to give effect without positive orders from Home.
Then, had Officers' Houses been commenced, they might, I should suppose, have been ready even by this time.
I may conclude by adding that I should consider the system of billets to be wholly inadmissible in the present state of this Colony, and therefore under no circumstances would I acquiesce in its adoption.
I have, &c.,
Signed: Henry Pottinger.
Thurlow,
Visual Bromann,
Michael ...
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