CO129-244 - Governor Des Voeus Acting Governor Fleming - 1890 [1-4] — Page 400

duties of his appointment.

3.

398

the

I may further be permitted to add that although, as being operations of a special nature, and extending over a limited period, it may be desirable to carry out the main drainage scheme, and the trigonometrical survey, by a special staff, it is in my opinion undesirable that these operations should be conducted altogether independently of, and without reference to, the Surveyor General who is in a position to render valuable assistance to each of these special works, and

assistance of a nature that can hardly be obtained outside the Public Works Department. If these works are carried out quite independently of the Surveyor General, the Government will have three comparatively weak technical staffs, instead of one strong staff, and in case of illness or absence on leave on the part of the head of the Sanitary branch, or the trigonometrical survey, the Surveyor General would probably be called on to do his best to carry on their work in their absence, while from the fact that he had previously been unconnected with the special work carried on by these sub-departments, he would necessarily labour under serious disadvantages and the duration and cost of the work would necessarily be increased.

4.

With the exception of the Sanitary Engineer, and one Assistant Engineer transferred temporarily to Mr. Chadwick, it will be seen that the staff now recommended is virtually the same as that I had previously proposed. But there are certain modifications in detail which

further