CO129-366 - Governor Sir Lugard Acting Governor May - 1910 [4-5] — Page 253

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.