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Assistant Surgeon and not as Medical Officer in charge of
Victoria Gaol. It was therefore as an Assistant Surgeon
that he drew a house allowance; that he was assigned by
the Principal Civil Medical Officer to take medical charge
of the Gaol did not make his house allowance an allowance
appertaining to the office of Medical Officer in charge of
the Gaol. It is true that Mr. Chamberlain in his Despatch
No. 350 of the 23rd. October, 1902, in reply to Sir William
O2 Gascoigne's Despatch No. 398 of the 4th. September, 1902,
concurred in the proposal that Dr. Thomson and his success-
-orv should continue to draw a house allowance of $720 a
year until quarters near the Gaol were provided. The
mistake, if I may say so, seems to have been made of over-
-looking the terms of Dr. Thomson's appointment and attach-
-ing the house allowance to the special duties allotted to
him and not to his status as Ássistant Surgeon for whom
quarters were not then available. Moreover for reasons
given in paragraph 5 of this present Despatch it seems to
me that this ruling as to Dr. Thomson's successors held
good only so long as his successors were by their terms of
appointment entitled to quarters or allowance in lieu
thereof.
Further
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