CO129-333 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [1-4] — Page 283

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Registrar General's Office,

Hongkong, 4th, January, 1906.

Honourable

Sir,

I feel compelled once more to apply for the transfer

of Mr. Bullin from the post of First in this Office on the ground

of his unfitness for the post.

2.

I find Mr. Bullin generally incompetent to do the work, and I feel this so strongly that any work of the post that requires care and intelligence I endeavour to get done as far as possible by other clerks and by the shroff. For instance I have been unable to give Mr. Bullin any work in connection with the compilation of returns that involve accounts for my annual report. Last year I could not get the work apportioned to him done punct- ually, and what was done was done inaccurately. In Table I which shews the revenue of the department for two successive years I found more than half a dozen mistakes, and the tables shewing the accounts of the Chinese Recreation ground, Passage Money Fund and Market Charitable Fund I had to get made out by Mr. Chan Pui. I do not think there can be a surer test of the incompetency of a clerk than the unwillingness of the head of the department to

entrust work to him.

3.

It is useless referring to Mr. Bullin for papers. They escape his memory. It is not of course always possible for

me to recollect the exact docket of a paper, but considering the comparatively few papers that pass through this office I think

that if I give the subject matter, Mr. Bullin ought to be able

to trace the paper. But within the last few days there have been three cases of his inability to find papers for me. In the first

case Messrs. Johnson Stokes & Master wrote to me with reference

to a previous communication. This could not be found until I went

The Colonial Secretary.

through