my qualifications for the post because His Excellency's knowledge of the status and service of every official here enables him at once to judge of the fitness or otherwise of any particular Candidate.
I may be permitted however to mention one matter which is not likely to be known to His Excellency but to which you can testify, viz: - that when I was Private Secretary to Sir Richard MacDonnell I became intimately acquainted with the working and details of the Colonial Secretary's Office.
The Registrar of the Supreme Court is, as you are aware, paid a salary of £800 besides fees of Office, and the appointment is a lucrative one, and yearly becoming more so. I understand however that it is the intention of His Excellency to recommend the same policy that he has advocated in other cases - viz: - that all fees should be paid into the Treasury and every officer paid by a salary, an annual one.
I observe that the Registrar of the Singapore Supreme Court receives no fees, but a commuted sum of £600 per annum, as appears by the Blue Book of 1874 - and in fixing the future salary of the Registrar...