9.
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I recommend that Mr. Drury, who has acted as temporary Land Surveyor, be appointed as one of the Assistant Engineers. His present salary is $1,800 per annum, with an additional temporary allowance of $50 per month while acting Land Surveyor, being altogether at the rate of $2,400 per annum. The salary provided in the Estimates of the current year for Assistant Engineer is $2,328 per annum.
10. When Mr. Cooper is transferred to the Sanitary branch (Mr. Chadwick), it will, I think, be necessary to make some other arrangement as regards the Inspector of Buildings, a branch of the service which, according to the Building Ordinance (No. 15 of 1889), is placed under the Surveyor General. Mr. Sample (now Assistant Inspector of Buildings) might be made Inspector of Buildings, or he might be promoted to be one of the Assistant Engineers, a position which, by education and attainment, he is, I believe, qualified to fill. Should this change be carried out, there would still remain a vacancy for an Assistant Engineer in the staff originally proposed, and another vacancy has occurred through the resignation of Mr. Berkeley.
11. I may now proceed to give the explanations required by the Colonial Office Despatch of 28th December 1889.
1st. As regards the "Quantity Surveyor". The proposal for such an official originated, I believe, in a Commission of inquiry into the Public Works Department in 1883, and this official was requisitioned before my arrival. In the course of this inquiry, it became...
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