Sheriff and Queens Rector (which latter office your Memorialist found himself, upon arrival in the Colony, directed to undertake the duties of by the Colonial Government) at £100 per annum begs to assure you that neither the Fees actually received during the time he held these offices nor any information which he carefully sought after on the subject would justify his calculating such Fees at so high a scale after payment of attendants.
That lest it should be supposed that the duties imposed upon your Memorialist by his respective offices were owing to the troublesome and exceptional nature, and their excess created by the position of affairs in the Colony, your Memorialist most respectfully begs leave to impress upon you that such was not the case. The most careful enquiries made by your Memorialist justify him in this conclusion, and it is remarkable that of the Inquests held by your Memorialist but very few presented features arising from the crisis of affairs in the Colony, while cases of Piracy seemed to have become more rare than in ordinary times.
A fact alluded to in your Memorialist's letter, No. 1, Wein Sohn. Bowring, to which he solicits your attention.
Your Memorialist begs to bring to your notice the circumstance of the offices of Crown Solicitor, Deputy Sheriff & Coroner having been separated upon his resignation, W. Turner having been appointed Crown Solicitor, and M. May, Deputy Sheriff and Coroner, a fact which your Memorialist most respectfully submits tends much to prove that the duties of both offices were not excessive for one individual to perform, and that the aggregate amount of Salary now paid Messrs. Turner and May does not exceed that at which your Memorialist held those offices, still less...
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Memorialist were received at the hands of Her Majesty's Crown Solicitor Khan, with far more consideration as which, it is submitted, would naturally lead to this being treated much as private professional practice & M. Anstey, a circumstance the former being enabled to give (as he invariably did give) the benefit of the close and confidential intimacy which subsisted between him and Her Majesty's Attorney General, W. Anstey, to lighten considerably the duties of Mr. Turner as Crown Solicitor.
Another fact which would tend much to lighten the duties is that some of the most onerous portion of the process - transferred to M. May with his numerous staff of assistants; such as the service of writs and all description of process now lightened and simplified much by having some of the most able staff of assistants for its conduct, needing little or no augmentation for the discharge of the additional duties brought upon him.
The Colony, possessing large professional practice, and a staff of assistants, W. Cooper Turner is a Solicitor some time established in the Colony.
Expected to accept office at a lesser amount of salary than he could be due to the under-mentioned circumstances which enable his Successors.
Your Memorialist would respectfully direct your attention to the fact that M. May (an early resident Official in the Colony, and consequently possessed of additional peculiar advantages) was, your Memorialist was informed and believes, a Salary of £700 per annum: besides being Superintendent of Police to which was attached, as Coroner held already the appointment.