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superior officer, and drives the latter to self-protection by complete inaction, and on investigation it can hardly be found to be just because while it vests the subordinate with independent powers to spend money on horticultural works without reference to the superior officer, it holds the latter responsible for the proper expenditure of the same funds, it being solely upon the guarantee of the Surveyor General that said funds can be drawn from the Treasury at all. Of course, the active daily intervention of a Managing Committee as referees between the two officers might have lessened the intense incongruity of the situation, but I repeat, reference to the Minutes of this Committee shows that on Garden matters they have met only seven times in three years and then have never intervened in administrative questions, their province as persons of culture and refinement has been limited to suggestions for completing the gardens on artistic principles.
7. As Mr. FORD is now on the eve of an absence of nearly one year and a half, and as there is not a single professional gardener here to take his place, I have now the honour very respectfully to place my services at the disposal of His Excellency the Governor and to express my readiness and ability to assume general supervision over all horticultural and arboricultural duties as my predecessors have done before me.
8. It would be all the same desirable to employ Mr. W. H. POATE as recommended by Mr. FORD as he will be very useful in looking after gardening details.
I have also the honour to enclose herewith a copy of the rules and regulations referred to.
The Honourable J. GARDINER AUSTIN, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
MEMO.
With a view to the better administration of the Department of Government Gardens, especially in reference to the execution of works, His Excellency the Governor is pleased to direct as follows:---
1. The Establishment of the Government Gardens will be a sub-Department of the Surveyor General's Establishment.
2. There will be a Garden Committee consisting of not fewer than five persons, of which the Surveyor General and Superintendent of Government Gardens will be ex-officio members.
3. All plans for alterations and improvements must be considered and approved by the Committee.
4. Sanction for the ordinary and any extraordinary expenditure must be obtained in the usual manner by the Surveyor General before any work is commenced.
5. Proposals for tree planting throughout the Colony must be submitted to and approved by the Committee when the work will be carried out by the Superintendent.
6. All works such as walks, paths, earthworks, drainage, &c., when decided upon by the Committee, will be carried out by the Surveyor General.
7. The Superintendent will have sole control of and be responsible for all that pertains to botanical and arboricultural matters in connection with the Government Gardens and Plantations.
8. All accounts of the Garden's Department will be kept in the Surveyor General's Office.
9. Orders for extra labour and for the supply of materials required for use in the horticultural and arboricultural department will be given directly to the contractors, and the vouchers attested by the Superintendent of Government Gardens.
10. The Gardeners, foresters, and other Chinese employed in the Government Gardens and Plantations will be under the sole control of the Superintendent.
11. The Superintendent of Government Gardens will be subordinate to no one in the Survey Department except the Surveyor General.
By Command,
(Signed,)
CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
15th December, 1873.
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