Letter No 2.
D
potential simplification of my duties and addition to my means
I am obliged
my
17
and believe it will require considerable Economy to
maintain myself and
my
utmost energies duly to
discharge what would be still required of me.
W. J. Mercer,
Sir
I have the Honor
to be
Your obedient Servant.
Colonial Secretary-
James John Hickson.
Copy Letter to Mr. Mercer. Colonial Secretary etc.
Victoria, 2nd February 1857.
of remuneration which I find to be absolutely necessary on the increase of my salary having stated his inability to comply with my application for the discharge of my united duties and to support myself, and it is the adequacy of my Salary to meet my necessary expenses in the circumstances in which I find myself placed here in my letter of the 31st ultimo, addressed to His Excellency Sir John Bowring, and having stated at length
accept my resignation of the offices which I hold from the date necessary for my support, I beg you will request of His Excellency
of this communication.
In addition to the circumstances stated in my letter of
the 31st ultimo, and although they form the main and important causes of my inability any longer to hold my appointments with justice to myself or to the public service, I must now state that at the interview with which His Excellency honored me last Saturday, namely the extreme difficulty of holding official intercourse with Her Majesty's Attorney General and his very irritating and offensively dictatorial demeanor and language to me while giving all my Energies to the faithful discharge of most arduous duties,
Colonial Secretary acting
4. Hong Kong to M. Hickson.
W. J. Mercer.
Colonial Secretary
I have the Honor
to be
Your obedient Servant
James John Hickson
Holywood Road, Jan 18th 1887.
My dear Sir,
I am most willing to be of any use to you in my power whether in the way of advice or otherwise. From what I have myself observed and from Conversations held with others I am of opinion that the several functions at present imposed upon you are beyond the capacity of any one man, unsupported by a good Staff of Clerks, to carry out, and the more so when that man is a Stranger to the Colony as you are:
The sums which you state you have to pay for Office and a Clerk - 40 Dollars per month - subtract £104 per annum, and when the hot weather comes you will be putting yourself to further expense; you will be obliged to keep two Chair Coolies which will take away another £30. Private practice is, in your Case, quite out of the question as your Official duties must more than occupy your time; The price of everything in the Colony is on the rise, and in the most moderate times I do not consider that a man in your position could have the necessaries of life for less than £400 per annum. With the hot weather will also come a more limited capacity for attending to business; I have therefore