# lands, and important and complicated question between the Colonial Government
and the Military and Naval Authorities) it will be admitted that the Surveyor General's duties
Must be chiefly administrative and that he can have little time
for
executive duties, which should be performed by the Executive Engineers under the immediate Superintendence and direction of the Surveyor General. With an efficient engineering and clerical staff, the Surveyor General would
be relieved of
Much
the routine
work which I have hitherto had to perform, and should have ample time for the general Supervision of the Sanitary
work, and
trigonometrical survey, as well as
the other work
of the Department.
6. In what I am about to advance I shall be treading on somewhat delicate ground, but I think I should fail in my duty to Government if I did not refer to it. Considering the nature of this Colony, and its past,
and probable future, expansion,
it will, I think, be conceded that the Public Works Department is actually, and must remain for a long time, one
of the most important branches of the Public services,
376
and that the manner in which
it is administered must largely affect the welfare of the Colony. "I will, I think, be further admitted that anything affecting the prestige of the Surveyor General must be prejudicial to the working of the Department. I use the word prestige advisedly because the last thing I
further respectfully submit that the fact of the Sanitary branch
and the
Trigonometrical survey works being
removed from the
Department, would, in the
eyes
of the Public, seriously
affect the reputation
of the Surveyor General.
The Public would infer
that the Government had decided that he was not qualified to direct these operations.
7. "I further, with all diffidence, venture to submit that the position and influence of the
Surveyor General will be prejudicially affected if he is excluded from the Executive Council.
Considering the number and importance of the questions connected with Public Works and Crown Lands which come before the Executive Council, the Surveyor General is placed at a great disadvantage if he is deprived of