No.140.
Sir,
ENCLOSURE.
Public Works Office
Hong Kong, 23rd February, 1901.
I have the honour to forward a letter from my Office Assistant and Accountant and to state that I consider his request for more clerical assistance in this Department is reasonable and indeed necessary.
The clerical work of this office has increased very much during the past few years. In addition to the figures given by Mr. Wood which shows that we had in 1900 to deal with an expenditure of $993,115 as against $734,397 in 1892 and $572,237 in 1893 I may call attention to the increase in correspondence. The number of letters and references to be dealt with in 1893 when the staff was the same as now was as follows:
From Colonial Secretary Letters to Government Departments and Miscellaneous 1893 573 separate papers1122 references 1355 1900 602 1808 Do. 2330
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary.