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the Government in 1893 may be granted to me, but as I thought the Government would not throw salaries away.
I refrained from so doing until a favourable opportunity offered itself. How I find I allowed only the salary voted in the Estimates for 1893 for the post of Clerk, whilst all other officers in the same department have had their salaries increased since 1873 and their salaries will be again further increased in 1902 under the new scale.
3. I joined the service in 1881 and have therefore been in the service 20 years.
4. In 1893, when the staff of the Colonial Treasury was reorganized and the cost of the establishment reduced from $25,000 to $20,000 per annum, my salary was fixed at $3,000 per annum.
I assumed the duties of my present office on the 8th January 1893, at a period when the unprecedented disorganized state of the staff placed an undue burden on the officers left, as they were entitled, as of right, to the post; and I was consequently obliged to work under most exceptional conditions, viz:
(a) absence of three senior officers;
(b) the sudden retirement of the staff generally;
and (c) the pressure of work due to the absence of assistance in their duties. While so acting I was given half the salary of the office of Assistant Clerk ($237) and half that of the Chief Clerk ($400), totalling $637 only; the reason for this being, I presume, the adoption of the scheme of general retrenchment of expenditure then inaugurated by the Government.
6. The salaries of the separate offices of Chief Clerk and Cashier and Clerk and Accountant were set down in the Estimates...
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