Notoria). I proposed to undertake both these buildings with an addition.
Our Officer in any department which would have cost £220 ft-annuum, this arrangement has been made to the Royal Engineer officer for the building of £1193, and if we take the host offices alone.
Works are required to Royal Engineers, cannot still be paid for performing the duties already transferred, as belonging to the Surveyor General's department.
If a saving is effected by the transfer, I do not think it should compensate for the inconvenience of having the office headed by one who cannot give his whole time and attention to it, who is liable to removal, and who cannot be as conversant with former transactions, land, expenditure, and interest in the improvement of the Colony.
Almost every work, from the establishment of the Colony, has been planned and carried out by the Surveyor General, by whom the Town was designed and laid out, and lots of land were arranged. He is now the only remaining member of the Land Committee.
Would not a reduction be more satisfactorily made by combining the Land Office with that of the Junior Assistant? It is impossible to give any but a professional opinion, but I could, without difficulty, take a part of the duty from any other department in which a reduction may be contemplated.
Some alterations may be proposed in the Treasury, if, for instance, the office of Collector of Crown rents, which perhaps belongs to the Land Office, might be combined with advantage; for the existing pay is brought between the two officers, which could be divided simply and satisfactorily by one officer.
I should be wary of suggesting anything that might be considered invidious, nor have I a right to comment upon my other department. But as the Treasury and Land Office are in some necessary connection, and reductions are contemplated.