Valuators since 1892 and had not the slightest reason to think that my duties as such would be dispensed with - and ordinarily not without some previous intimation.
I therefore on the 20th instant addressed a letter (a copy of which I enclose) through the Head of my Department to the Administrator, bringing to his notice the nature of my appointment, its date, the length of time I had performed the duties, and the reasons I had for believing it to be permanent, and that its sudden and unexpected withdrawal, depriving me of nearly one third of my official emoluments, entailed upon me great loss and embarrassment.
That I had additional reason to consider the post permanent appears from the Minute of the Colonial Secretary quoted in my letter already referred to.
His Excellency returned the following reply: "Sir, As it has been decided that the Wamatriship should not be held by any one officer for more than two years in succession, and that some other officer in the Service whose salary was small should be temporarily benefited by the annual change thus provided for, I have not the least intention of deviating from a rule which is so just to the...