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Enclosure 3.
O our 9
COPY.
Minute by the Postmaster General.
Honourable Colonial Secretary.
Originally I made a proposition that a meal should be supplied to the clerks on the days of arrival of Contract packets from Europe, (English and French), when they had to work 10 to 12 hours on the stretch not by way of remuneration, but simply because I saw that the physical limits had been about reached. To put it plainly, on selfish grounds; it was clear to me that should any unusual number of the clerks go sick, or suddenly decide that their places were not worth the strain, there would be a collapse, and however irresponsible I personally might be, the odium and, probably, more substantial ill effects would attach to me.
As the very cheapest safeguard I could devise, seeing as I do that the poorer clerks are not properly fed, and that the