of my
I have in the concluding portion
letter No 23 to which I must again refer, briefly set forth some few particulars of my
Colony
as its Engineer
Service in the
but I may
be permitted here to state that such
scanty information
details.
convey and, to a stranger to
No
to my work would
my
leave more to the imagination than I should adopt in justice
myself were I addressing any other than the Chief of the Department under which I have served -
carry
out
the various Engineering works of the
I had most inadequate assistance. often
without for many years
any professional help at all I had
to survey, design work, make the detail drawings, instruct the Chinese Workman, make models myself of work they had never seen;
could not understand, on
carry
on other Office work for the sale of Land, issue of Leases, and preparation of Rent Rolls, transfer-
Registry of Property – such work mental and physical I had to be responsible for the actual
carrying
out
added to
frequently without a
clerk or any competent person other than a Chinaman utterly ignorant, just instructed by myself.
80
As the Colony developed itself
I became more and more occupied upon each and every part I have left the mark of my labor, and from having the entire responsibility became
more interested in its improvement than any other Engineer (who had only to carry out the designs of another or small portions of
his own)
could be.
The City of Victoria as it now stands, with plans for its further extension, and the development, the whole of the Civil works
already
executed, - (with the exception of the Government Offices, & many now in course of erection I have designed, and nothing but the firm conviction that
my health is unable to stand against
the enervating effects of
the climate
induces me to tender my resignations. The duties of the Surveyor General's, with the necessity for frequent exposure to sun and rain, must at all times be most trying and dangerous
In the early and
any
European
Page 1
J