H 6
A correspondence (not necessary to copy here) took place between the Colonial Secretary, and myself on the subject; the subject of admeasuring vessels at the Colonial Registers requiring the troublesome and onerous duties of which, the authorities wished to add to the already too numerous employments of the Harbor Master - and resulted in the following appeal from Harbor Master to the Colonial Secretary for transmission to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
N32 Lin
Harbor Master's Office
Hong Kong 4th June 1858
With reference to your letter of the ... No 271 acquainting me that the Lieutenant Governor, administrating the Government, has no choice but to call upon me to measure vessels, as those duties devolve upon me by Ordinance.
I have the honor to submit that while my appointment under Her Majesty's signet and sign manual is that of Harbor Master and Marine Magistrate alone, I am now performing duties most onerous and responsible in addition to those which appertain to the offices named in my Commission, and the performance of which, were not mentioned in England as likely to be effected by me.
The measuring of vessels (Act 17 & 18th c. [104. Part 2]) requires an amount of physical exertion that under any circumstances I do not feel myself competent to undergo, while the nature of the employments - such as erecting beacons, fixing leading and light-rods, fitting buoys with chains to moorings - is quite incompatible with the trust I have the honor to hold in Her Majesty's service, and especially recognized in my Commission.
From Hong Kong being a Free Port, the duties that, in other Ports, are conducted by the Custom House are here performed by this office. The annual average number of ships arriving is about Eleven Hundred and forty, with an approximate tonnage of four hundred and forty to four hundred and fifty thousand tons, and the Departures are proportionate : - all sea-going vessels arriving and quitting, enter and clear out at this office, and consequently a very great deal of work devolves...