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beg to offer the following comparison between the post of Harbour Master at Hongkong, and that of Master Attendant at Singapore to be laid before Your Lordship, and doing so I hope to be acquitted of any intention of desiring to improve my condition by the disparagement of others; I merely advance facts for Your Lordship's favourable consideration.
With reference to the latest Annual Departmental Reports of the two colonies shows that the importance of the Port as represented by the tonnage entering was 3,320,454 tons in the Straits Settlements, as compared with 6,235,544 tons at Hongkong, and, assuming that the amount of shipping frequenting the Port is a fair criterion of the duties and responsibilities of the principal officers in the Harbour Department, it must, I think, be admitted that the balance turns vastly in favour of Hongkong.
6. But in addition to the analogous duties of the two posts, I ask consideration for the duties of other posts which I hold, and which are outside the sphere of the duties of the Master Attendant at Singapore, namely, "Superintendent of the Gunpowder Depôt, and "Emigration Officer"; the duties connected with both of which posts were considered to entitle the Harbour Master of Hongkong to additional remuneration.