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dissolved and its members left the Colony I moved the Government to revert to the old original plan of putting the whole of the planting operations under the general supervision of the Public Works Department with the Superintendent to attend to the professional details of the treatment and propagation of plants.
10. My object in this step was not to gratify any personal ambition alleged by Mr Ford, for I had no ambition other than to serve. My object was solely to give the benefit of the assistance of a large and important organization like the Public Works Department with all its appliances, resources, and numerous personnel and with its many facilities for conducting operations on a large scale. By the machinery of the Public Works Department, I aspired to infuse life into the work, to enlarge its sphere, to spread it with a more vigorous hand than had yet been brought to the task.
This would have been, I am still of opinion, the best course, for it would have brought the general scheme of laying out the Island, its roads, works, and plantations under one organization, while Mr Ford's professional knowledge would have been utilized in technical details.
11. Having made this rectification in respect of the motives imputed to me, I must also, before leaving this part of Mr Ford's Report, state that I cannot admit the charge implied in paragraph ... of impeding his progress.