250
25.
debarred from the appointments of First Magistrate and Treasu-
rer, still if I could obtain an increase of salary in my
present appointment, which would bring it approximately up
to that of a first class appointment, I could wait for promo-
tion with resignation, until the Registrar-Generalship should
fall vacant. I therefore addressed the Government in a letter
setting out my service and claims. I did not conceal my hope
that the increase might amount to $100 a month, which with
exchange compensation, and after deducting my present allowance
of $300, would have meant a net increase of £150 per annum,
bringing my salary up to £960. The allowance actually re-
commended is $50 a month with compensation, or a net increase
of £60 a year. And it is saddled with the condition that it
is not to be drawn when I am acting in another appointment,
the effect of which is that I can not act as Registrar General
without suffering pecuniary loss, so long as the holder of
the substantive appointment is on full pay, namely for four
At the end of eight months, four months full pay and
four months half, I should neither gain nor lose: for any
shorter period I should lose, more or less. The argument
that I have no pecuniary advantage to gain by acting may
moreover be adduced in the future, when a junior officer is
a candidate for the acting apointment. When in the course
of time the substantive post falla vacant, I shall then learn,
I fear, as in the case of the appointment of First Magistrate,
that experience must be recent to be recognized. In that
case, seeing that the proposed allowance is not pensionable,
the intervention of Your Lordship's predecessor will have been
of no avail when he ruled that I "must be regarded in every
way as an officer of the Cadet Service, and as oqually eligible
months.