not see haum in this, but he has two of them any on his Executive Council. He might have discussed the matter and then brought it before the whole Legislative Council in the ordinary way. Nor do I think that his reference to M Chamberlain will be casual.
When the papers as to the Gap Rock rate are referred to M Chamberlain he will carefully consider them. The lateness of the Estimates is a common subject of reasonable complaint for the governor's discussion. It should be remedied in future.
He shows that if the due is to be off there will be a deficit on the 1897 Estimates, but he ought to have contemplated considering the subject and allowed for possible contingencies in the matter, nor did he hint that if the money were taken, it might be possible to meet the deficit by reducing expenditure!
However that may be, we shall hear in due course as to the main subject - how far a governor's pledge should be held binding, & whether the recommendation of 5 out of 6 Unofficial members that the duty should be kept up only for general purposes, not with a view to a specific world, had better be accepted.
The hoist now is the attack on the governor by the other Unofficial members. Whitehead, the cantankerous sixth Unofficial member, complains as to the lateness of the Estimates, a common one & always well founded. The governor says he will attend to it.
His complaint as to private reference to the Unofficial members was discourteous & treasonable as he himself did not treat the reference as material. I think that the answer should be that the question of the procedure on the occasion in point was one part, and M Chamberlain is not inclined to comment upon either Whitehead's representations on the subject at once.
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