I have been a hard-worked servant ever, and had, or ever can have, for the troubles and difficulties I had to contend against in a new colony, with insufficient staff, and unskilled labor at hand, I had to work with Chinese workmen, who understood no language but their own, and the difficulty of European work or supervision cannot fall to the lot of any future Surveyor General.
So hard worked was I that I rarely found it possible (as the Colonial records will show) to take the six weeks leave of absence allowed by the regulations.
I had to attend to business of all kinds, for in reality there was frequently no one to whom it could be delegated.
I am writing to trouble you with a long explanation of the grounds on which I rest my especial strong claim to consideration by the Right Honorable the Secretary of State, irrespective of any claim to a pension which under ordinary circumstances would be granted to an officer who had merely served a number of years in the Colony, without the risk to life by exposure in difficult and arduous services such as I have executed.
I have the honor to be, Sir, Your Obedient Servant,
A. Cleverly
I certify that Mr. Cleverly has recently been heavily handicapped by intermittent fever and debility, complicated with an enlarged state of liver and failure of health generally.
I consider Mr. Cleverly to be suffering from the effects of these feverish attacks and