complained at Cooktown, Townsville, and Brisbane, and had by my orders been freely used for sanitary purposes. I trust the foregoing relation of facts will be sufficient to place you in a position to contradict untrue statements which must, I think, have originated in interested parties in order to make the position clear. I shall have much pleasure in confirming the statement on oath before a Notary.
I remain,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed)
Henry Webber,
Commander S.S. "Ocean"
280
I, Henry Webber, Master Mariner and Commander of the British Steam Ship "Ocean", now temporarily residing at Victoria, Hong Kong, do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare that the letter dated September 24th, 1881, addressed to W. G. James, Esq., Mayor, G. R. Stevens, Esq., and comprised in the three Sheets of foolscap paper hereunto annexed, was written and signed by me; and that all and every statement contained and set forth in the said letter are severally true.
And I further declare that the Statements and Circumstances therein contained are true; and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, by virtue of an Act made and passed in the Sixth year of the reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, entitled "An Act to repeal an Act of the then present session of Parliament, entitled 'An Act for the more effectual abolition of oaths and affirmations taken and made in various Departments of the State, and to substitute declarations in lieu thereof, and for the more entire abolition of unnecessary and extrajudicial oaths and affidavits, and to make other provisions for the abolition of unnecessary oaths'."
Declared at Pretoria in the Colony of Hong Kong, this Twenty-fourth day of September, A.D. 1881.
(Signed)
Henry Webber
Before me,
(Signed)
Edmund Sharp,
Notary Public,
Hong Kong