Z.
For the services of Lieutenant B. Pett, R.E., to aid Mr Metcalfe in the numerous duties which he has to perform.
Q..
I am fully aware that Your Excellency considers that the work of the Survey Department ought, under ordinary circumstances, to be satisfactorily carried out by the authorized Staff without an Assistant Surveyor General. In this view, I am prepared to concur if sickness, or other unforeseen contingency, does not intervene to prevent each Officer of the Department attending regularly at his post.
3. Unfortunately, however, it is impossible in this climate, having regard to the exposure to which those in the Department are liable, to count upon such a position, such as is now the case, the Acting Surveyor General, with works of one kind or another being pressed on throughout the Colony, being left through the illness of Mr Dukes with only the assistance of Mr Alford and Mr Prestage.
4. It is with much regret that I have to report that Mr Dukes, Clerk of Works,