440
Jour
them about an couple of months to complete, and they are then paid the fee of £150 each which is the sum at present given for the performance of this duty. Should no fresh appointment be made until a change is considered that of the previous year is to hold good for each succeeding year, but this is the first time that I have known that the intentional omission of the Government to make a fresh appointment each year when it happens to be held by an Officer with special claims was regarded as constituting him the permanent holder of the office.
6. It is the more strange that M. Gerrard should entertain this idea now as it appears that in 1866 when he was pressing a similar claim he was informed that he was mistaken in supposing that the appointment of valuator was of a permanent nature, and his supposition that he was again appointed in 1872 merely in order to make amends for a previous grievance emanates entirely from his own imagination and is in no way based upon fact.
7. It would indeed in my opinion be both inexpedient and unjust that this office should be permanently held, and in 1875 when