460
Within the last two years both the Colonial Surgeons of Singapore have visited this Colony and were astonished at the large amount of work required in my appointment and the smallness of the pay I have shown in my application that the work required of the Colonial Surgeon has more than quadrupled, surely it is not much to ask considering the wealth of the Colony and the increase in the Staff of Officials that the pay of the Colonial Surgeon which was liberal a quarter of a century ago may be increased in reasonable proportion to the increase in importance and work and that the Colonial Surgeon's appointment should be put on a proper footing for time to come.
I am compelled to accept the terms offered as it is impossible to carry on private practice with Government work which is increasing yearly in its demands on my services. I would therefore respectfully request His Excellency the Acting Governor to reconsider and represent my case.
As regards the present offer, adding £200 offered by Lord Derby to my present pay of £820 would make the Colonial Surgeon's allowance £1020 a year, and this with the chair coolies allowance heretofore granted, and the proposed addition of $90 for House allowance in which I have to find a waiting and consulting room is very small when compared with the pay of both the appointments mentioned, even without taking into consideration the greater amount of labour required.
I would add another petition that my years of service in the Colony of Mauritius may count for pension for the following reasons: the allowance recommended by His Excellency the late Administrator cannot be sanctioned. In April 1866 I joined the Mauritius Government Service as Surgeon to the Coolie Emigration Department. I was engaged at £300 a year and an allowance of a rupee a head for every coolie landed alive going from India to Mauritius or returning from Mauritius to India and was to be at the service of the Mauritius Government for shore duty when not required afloat by Emigration Department.
In the Autumn of 1867 a violent Epidemic of Fever broke out and the services of the Emigration Surgeons were required on shore. I was on shore all this time receiving only £300 a year, having to find board and lodging, while many ships with coolies were left in charge of Native Apothecaries having the slightest knowledge of medicine, thereby losing the head money allowance, besides being mulcted in addition, in board and lodging expenses, which I should not have had to pay at sea.
In May 1868, suffering severely from fever and being of no further use ashore, I was shipped off to Calcutta in charge of coolies, having served through the severest time of the epidemic which carried off nearly a third of the population of Mauritius.
On July 1868, I was compelled by the decision of the Emigration Department in Calcutta to send in my resignation as Consulting Surgeon of Emigration Department.