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I have shown how very strongly I had from the first exerted myself to keep the transactions of the Government with the Licensees above all fault and suspicion by insisting that they being made direct personal transactions between the Government and the Licensees.
All business was therefore arranged by myself and the Licensees in presence of leading public functionaries such as the Colonial Secretary and the Auditor General.
It may be true that the time has now arrived when the Government has acquired experience sufficient to devise some new and better mode of collecting the Licenses, but I venture to assert that nothing has occurred to show that at the time when all was experimental the Executive here had not adopted the best and simplest policy by summarily professing and selecting from the parties applying those who were most respectable in fortune and character.
Experience, more than that yet acquired, can alone mould the principle to serve as the mould wherein to shape future transactions, and much question if the best principle has yet been discovered.
It is easier to assert than to prove that there are only two right modes of procedure, viz: either accepting the highest offer on deciding by lot, the fees and regulations being previously fixed.
The probability is that a better plan than either will be devised. Of those two...