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reduction last year of the appointment of
Assistant Adjutant and
Quarter Master General,
was made
by authority from home, a Brigade Major being already allowed. The Brigade Major in addition to his staff duties, commands the companies of the Ceylon Rifles at Albany Barracks, there being only other effective Captain with the troops here,
He also acts as Paymaster, being considered by his commanding officer the best qualified for that duty, no Paymaster being on the strength of the companies here.
In the Commissariat Department a reduction of £210 can be made; all payments to the civil services, and the supplies for the Army, being conducted by the Commissariat officer acting as Deputy during the last ten months, but had he fallen sick, the duties of this important Department must have devolved upon a Clerk.
In the Medical Department I consider it most essential to have an experienced chief accustomed to the diseases of a tropical climate. During the last year a Surgeon of the 2nd Battalion 95th Regiment have been wanting to complete the Medical staffs here, but there have been two supernumerary Assistant Surgeons, of whom I found one on my arrival, and the other has since joined, and I have had no order to remove them; indeed, their services could not have been dispensed with during the recent fever that attacked the garrison.
With regard to the Civil Branch of the Ordnance Department, I am not prepared to give an opinion, further than that from the quantity of