I can well imagine that it is desirable that there should be some officer in Residence at the Post Office, but I cannot think it necessary that it should be the Postmaster General himself.
Probably the Assistant Postmaster (whose salary is £500) or some clerk would look upon the quarters with less critical eyes.
If the Postmaster's work is so much as to be a desirable thing for the Postmaster General to be at his Office, it would hit him very hard to leave his rooms free of rent on condition that he lived there.
But if he is on leave as is here described, it strikes me as doubtful whether the Collectorship of Stamps Revenue, for which a separate salary of £200 is provided (which has not always been held in conjunction with the Postmastership), should not again be dissociated. I have to doubt that when the salary was fixed at £800 a year, there was no intention here that he would also get a Residence free.
And I do not think he makes out a good claim to remission of rent if he is not willing to live in the Rooms - which are noisy certainly and not providing him house elsewhere being any Lodgings Ill-suited.
The Quarters are on the first floor above the Post Office - which, as it ought to be, is built at the busiest Corner in the town in one of the hottest fronts of the European Settlement. There is no doubt that the mails have greatly increased within the last few years, for almost every steamer brings a small mail from her last post.
The work is constant. But I am not prepared to say that the Office is too small. It doesn't seem rather invidious to force an officer to pay rent for rooms over his office - & I am disposed to agree with the lot.
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