622
Ai
Regional.
I
feel that I have such a strong case to make before the Secretary of State in support of my application that I avail myself of Your Excellency's kind offer to forward my letter, or any other communication, for His Lordship's consideration. I would therefore beg Your Excellency to represent that the scheme sanctioned by the despatch of the Secretary of State of the 19th June 1890 was mainly to afford relief to certain officers of the Colony on account of the increased cost of living in this Colony, and did not contemplate any reduction in the rates of pension or leave salary.
It is just where there had been only a considerable increase in the pay of the office, that certain former privileges saved + salary of the office should be withdrawn, thus I could make no objection, when my Deputy Registrar had been raised from $8520 to $6480, to receive my half-pay salary at the larger rate of 4/- instead of 4½, but this I contend was not a personal disability but an incapacity attached to the office itself and arose from the increase of the pay of that office. The principle laid down in the despatch was that there was no necessity for a change in the rate of pension, and therefore that the holders of those offices to which