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conditional duties that lie before this officer in connection with the Civil Service, as were rendered the consideration of H. His Excellency and I shall therefore have occasion to address you on the subject in subsequent despatches.
With reference to the last paragraph of your recent Despatch relating to the establishment of a scheme for granting Pensions to the Civil Servants who may be willing to submit to annual abatement for their Salaries, I have to inform you that on consideration it appears to me that as the system of abatement has been discontinued in this Colony and in every other Colony in which it existed, it would not be expedient in Hong Kong to revive a system which has been discontinued when it was in operation in Hong Kong.
On this subject I have to refer you to my despatch of the 18th December last concerning the views of the Law Commissioners of the Crown in regard to the application of the Pensions' Continuation Act of 1859 as a precedent herein.