2.
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I shall consider as final their Lordships' decision that all pensions to be hereafter granted shall be defrayed from the local revenue; that the abatements made from Salaries, while those salaries were paid from Imperial funds, be retained in the Imperial Exchequer, but that the abatements from the Salaries of the Civil Servants who were paid from the local revenue will be repaid to the Colonial Government, and I shall confine myself to investigating the amount which, under the terms of this decision, is due to the Colony.
3.
For this purpose, I annex a Return showing the Parliamentary Grant and the Expenditure of the Colony for each year from 1847 to 1857, together with a statement of the Superannuation abatements made from Salaries during that period.
Parliamentary Estimate: 1855/16 Lt. Governor 2000 Colonial Secretary 1,200 Colonial Treasurer 1004.
As regards the abatements for the period from 1st April 1854 to 30th June 1857, amounting to £2,198. 9. 2, their Lordships observe that they "will be prepared to repay to the Colonial Treasury such proportion of this sum as may be ascertained to have been deducted from the Salaries which were paid from the local revenue."
During the period mentioned, only two grants were made by Parliament, being for the years 1854/55 and 1855/56. In the latter year, £3800 was voted, the amount voted being $15,000 to defray the salaries of three officers specified,
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