of Superintendents General and manager to the Garden Committee, and it is a matter of considerable regret to me that I should not have been more fortunate than The Hardy R.C. in my relations with Mr. Ford.
4. The inconsistency of holding me responsible for the proper laying out of public moneys while I was excluded from the supervision of Garden works was brought to the notice of Sir Arthur Kennedy. His Excellency, upon looking into matters, discovered that the creation of a separate Department for the Gardens in January 1872 had also surprised him.
He was surprised to find that notwithstanding Macdonnell's decisive minute of the 9th of January 1872, relieving the Public Works Department from charge of Garden matters, the Government had found itself compelled to revert to that Department for the proper superintendence of the Garden work of 1872-3, and consequently Sir Arthur Kennedy had the less hesitation in cancelling a minute which practical experience had proved to be unsatisfactory.
In speaking of his predecessor's minute constituting the Gardens a separate Department, Sir Arthur Kennedy expressed his conviction that the arrangements under that minute could not have been intended to be permanent and that they had their origin in special causes.
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