:
EXTRACT FROM COLONIAL REGULATIONS.
PAGE 698.
211. Persons in a Colony, whether public functionaries or private individuals who have any representations of a public or private nature to make to the Government, should address them to the Governor through the Colonial Secretary, The duty of the Governor is to consider and act upon each such representation as public expediency or justice to the individual may appear to require, with the assistance in certain cases of his Executive Council; and if he doubts what steps to take thereupon, or if public advantage may seem to require it, he will refer the matter to the Secretary of State.
212. Every individual has the right to address the Secretary of State if he thinks proper, in which case he must transmit such communication unsealed, and in triplicate, to the Governor, requesting him to forward it in due course to the Secretary of State. Every letter, memorial, or other document, which may be required by the Secretary of State from a Colony, otherwise than through the Governor, will be referred back to the Governor for his report.
213 The preceding rule requiring transmission of correspondence with the Secretary of State through the Governor, is based on the strongest grounds of public convenience, in order that all communications may be duly verified, as well as reported on, before they reach the Secretary of State. It extends therefore to communications relating to public affairs as well as to the concerns of the writer, to those from all public functionaries of whatever rank, and to those from public bodies.
523
NOTE. It is a cardinal rule of the Colonial Service that all communications from a subordinate officer to the Governor are to be addressed to the Head of the Department in which the officer is employed (for example-a Nurse employed in the Medical Department of a Colony, should address a communication intended for the Governor to the Head of that Department through the Matron, whose duty it will be to forward it, with any remarks upon it he may desire to make, to the Colonial Secretary, for transmission to the Governor) and not direct to the Colonial Secretary, thus ignoring the Head of the Department.
į