2
Post Office.
No. 5 of the 11th March, the Rockefeller Department paying for this accommodation £150 per annum to this Government, and with which Mr. Hyland appears to have been satisfied up to September last.
3. Mr. Hyland in his letter of the 6th March states that, shortly after his return, on the 14th September, 1848, from England, where he had been on leave of absence, he observed indications of decay in the Building, and duly brought the circumstance to the notice of the Surveyor General; and that on the 17th September 1849, the day after a typhoon, he again sent notice to the Surveyor General having observed several cracks in the ceiling; nevertheless, nothing was done for the security of the Building; and on the 16th idem, the ceiling of the sitting room fell in.
No. 4. Mr. Flaverly does not deny that the insecure state of the Building was brought to his notice, but it would seem to have been done in a casual manner. Had it been especially brought to his notice, and no attention been paid thereto, I infer Mr. Hyland would have complained to the local Government on the subject, to which however, it does not appear any reference was made.
No. 5. That Mr. Hyland had a personal subject, when I had an interview with him on the subject, gave him my opinion that he had no legal claim for remuneration from the Colonial Department, but possibly his case might be favorably viewed by his own Department at home, and Your Lordship will perceive that the Attorney General's opinion is to the same purport.
I likewise forward a Report in detail by Mr. Mackwick, the Government Appraiser, of the actual loss sustained by...