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that Mr. Prestage's salary should be raised to £500 a year. I did not see my way to granting a permanent increase of salary, but recognizing the very heavy work which Mr. Prestage had to perform I expressed my willingness to remunerate him for the extra work he was doing there with any unappropriated money might be on the Establishment Charges of the Survey Department.
6. In the meantime Mr. V. Prestage was taken seriously ill, and died on the 23rd of August last.
7. Finding, at the date of my enquiry, that #2,263 in salaries in the Survey Department had been unexpended, and that the sum would stand at $2,563 at the end of the year, I referred the papers to the Finance Committee who unanimously approved a vote of $1000 to the widow and children of Mr. Prestage for the two years during which the extra work had been laid upon him.
In requesting permission for the payment of $2,000 to the Representatives of the late Clerk of Works, I desire to invite Your Lordship's attention to the fact that it is in no sense a gratuity but a simple payment for extra and severe work which the exigencies of the Service entailed on Mr. Prestage. I trust, therefore, that Your Lordship will
Dec.