such a truly hopeless condition as to be unable to pay the salaries this year, and at the same time discharge in full its obligations to its other creditors. I shall give my reasons elsewhere. Now we pass on to the next paragraph :
As your Excellency has refused to wire the Secretary of State, the unofficial members have done so themselves in the following terms:-
'Unofficial members Council dissatisfied with financial position and prospects; request postponement increase salaries; further consideration required, preparing Memorial. Governor declines to forward telegram.'
"They have now formally to request your Excellency, in the event of a despatch being received from the Secretary of State authorizing payment within this financial year of the increased salaries, to suspend its operation until the Memorial they are now preparing, your Excellency's views on the subject about to be submitted to Council, and the consequent debate be submitted to and considered by him."
I think I will defer what I have to say on this until I have spoken on another paragraph, where a similar spirit is more completely shown. I cannot with regard to the next paragraph believe that it was intended to imply what it unquestionably conveys, that is two grave imputations on my character:--
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**The unofficial members are still very decidedly of opinion that the financial position and prospects of the colony are not such as to render it prudent to grant just at present the very large increase of salaries now proposed. They can hardly think that your Excellency speaks seriously"-speaks seriously! when you propose to let the enhanced amounts be paid this year as they have been voted, and to consider the advisability of an equally large reduction (I never spoke of an equally large reduction,) when the estimates for next year are laid on the table. That, as your Excellency well knows, is practically an impossibility. An increase of salaries once voted and paid must stand. To act as you propose would be a very grave injustice to the officials. No man would know from year to year how to adjust his expenditure. No injustice can be done by a delay in payment now and in a reconsideration of the whole question, for as the increases have never yet been definitely sanctioned no man has a right to calculate on it. Breach of contract there is none whatever, and cannot be, as your Excellency being a lawyer very well knows. The unofficial members are by no means opposed to an increase of salaries to such an extent as is right and proper and called for by the increased cost of living and as far as the colony's finances will permit, but they feel strongly that, granted that they signed a report recommending an increase, it was a mistake to make the increase equivalent to 35 per cent. in many instances. One of the unofficial members indeed objected to so large an increase in December last, when there was still time without inconvenience to have the whole subject investigated."
The first imputation is a very serious one. It implies that I, as Governor of the colony, had spoken otherwise than seriously in an official matter about so serious a subject. I think that is a very grave and utterly unwarranted imputation. And then again there is another more serious imputation in the statement. "Breach of contract there is none whatever, and cannot be, as your Excellency, being a lawyer, very well knows" This unmistakably suggests and other portions of the paragraph imply that I have officially referred to a course as possible which I well know to be practically impossible. You begin by saying: They can hardly think that your Excellency speaks seriously when you propose to let the enhanced amounts be paid this year as they have been voted, and to consider the advisability of an equally large reduction when the Estimates for next year are laid on the table. That, as your Excellency well knows, is practically an impossibility. That is, that I have deliberately suggested a course of conduct which I know to be impossible. Here, as well as in other places, I make an explanation simply on the assumption that you have not weighed the meaning of your words-and I say therefore that I know of no such impossibility. I know within my own personal experience of two colonies where the salaries were not only decreased, but largely decreased, in one case as much as 30 per cent, to existing holders of office; and these were salaries not recently increased but fixed for a long time previously. It is indeed perfectly obvious that if a colony is not able to afford certain payments promised only from year to year under a different set of circumstances, it is only right that these promises should be withdrawn when it can be honestly done. Then you go on to say that to act as I propose would be a very grave injustice to officials. I think this involves a supposition contrary to reason, that is, that they would very much rather get no increase at all than simply get it for this year only. As for its being a grave injustice because no man would know how to adjust his expenditure from year to year, I grant you that no man would know how to adjust his expenditure if having promised him something in October, in April you take from him what he had every reason to expect that he would get. That would be a very real injustice, but it is not an injustice to tell him, if it be really the case, that the circumstances of the colony will probably be much altered and that you will not be able to grant it him any further.
As to the next paragraph, I do not wish to refer to questions of consistency. If members think honestly that such a change has occurred since October, when they promised the increase of salaries, they are perfectly right to say so. I think there is no such want of courage as that which prevents one from acknowledging a mistake which he has committed, and if you honestly think these increases are not possible as regards the permanent change in the Colony, you are perfectly right in saying so. I shall not refer further to the matter of inconsistency, although in some cases I must say the inconsistency appears to be of a somewhat marked character. I can hardly imagine that the writer of this paragraph duly considered what he was writing, and I can scarcely think it possible for him to have written it in the view of hoping to achieve his apparent object. I can simply say that until the letter in its present form is either withdrawn or changed, my action, whatever it may be, will not be in the smallest degree influenced by such a paragraph as that. The advice you give may be very good or it may be otherwise-I express no opinion on the matter.
"Breach of contract there is none whatever, and cannot be, as your Excellency being a lawyer very well knows." Now, I recognise that that is not the expression I used. I did not say "breach of contract." If you turn to my letter you will find I say something very nearly allied to a breach of contract. Moreover, gentlemen, I do not use legal expressions in documents of this kind; a contract has a meaning in ordinary English as apart from the legal signification. It means an obligation, and there is such a thing as a moral obligation as well as a legal obligation. You are quite right in saying that I knew perfectly well that there can be no legal contract where there is no consideration. I did say and I do say now, that apart from its legal signification there has been a moral contract made, and there has been a breach of that moral obligation, or contract, whichever you like.
The last paragraph on which I shall comment is as follows:-
"The unofficial members will be very glad to hear your Excellency's reasons in Council and if possible to be convinced by them, but they must insist upon your Excellency, before any increased salaries are paid this year, submitting to the Secretary of State their arguments still unanswered, as well as your reasons, and obtaining his final decision. It is their right as your Excellency's advisers on financial matters, and your sole advisers in a question so nearly affecting the official members. They did, unfortunately, towards the end of last year vote these salaries, without having before them any definite or intelligible statement of the financial position of the Colony, but there is still an opportunity open to them to reconsider the matter, so long as the proposed increases are waiting sanction."
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This, taken with other passages of this remarkable letter, leads me gravely to doubt whether its writer intended to achieve its apparent object; for it is difficult for me to conceive his believing that any representative of Her Majesty would be so craven, as to submit to dictation of this kind. As I have said before I shall do what I believe to be right in this matter without the slightest reference to this letter or anything contained in it. Now, gentlemen, having commented so far on your letter, let me say again that I have received it with exceeding pain as well as surprise, pain not because of
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