Duricate
I have to "my representations in the acting chief Magistrate's letter 1:32 25th July
Thereto 839. Uhopmay 387.277.47
46014 July 26 July to me and my reply I submit that from these documents it will become evident that it is not for any want of energy on my part that the ordinance has long in existence proved ineffectual, that nuisances in this colony daily increase in number in spite of diminishing, and that the Surveyor General's powers under the ordinance are at present purely nominal. I submit respectfully for your consideration whether the facts of the cases of the nuisances I endeavoured to abate did or did not justify the conclusion I came to, namely that the magistrates either are grossly ignorant of the meaning of the English language or lawlessly determined to frustrate the ordinances.
Hence my application of the 22nd of July. My correspondence may be in a singular state, but I firmly and respectfully submit that the statements of facts therein to be found are neither unbecoming nor of a complicating tendency. Neither have I assumed that the representations I was frequently forced to make of the miscarriages of justice received no consideration from His Excellency. Any letter of the 22nd fully sustains a directly contrary inference.
"I have never entertained the idea that the Surveyor General's department is the only branch of this Government subjected to obstructions and annoyance in the performance of the duties entrusted to it."
But although well aware of the obstructions experienced by others, it was not the less imperative on me to represent those frustrating the endeavours of my own department and opposed to the working of sanitary reform.
The due and calm examination which His Excellency has directed to be instituted, and of which it is his desire that we await the result, indicates to me too plainly that the only duties I shall be able to carry on in the meantime as efficiently and discreetly as possible will be the supervision of Government works only and preparation of designs, reports, and estimates of buildings - in fact, the exact routine of my predecessors.
I am not aware that there is any statement in my letter of the 22nd incapable of proof, but I doubt not many that would elicit a peremptory denial. But as the magistrates have by subsequent words and deeds denied the correctness of the unanimous opinion of the Legislative Council, both Chief Justice and Attorney General being present, duly communicated to acting Chief Magistrate Mitchell - that they were in error, how can they be expected to be more scrupulous regarding my representations?
From these considerations, I apprehend considerable lapse of time during which I have to await the result or conclusion. I am induced to make these representations to you because the time may come when it may appear to all that my apathy impeded the progress of sanitary reform.