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opportunity permits.
question if a boat is available at the instant I find myself at liberty to leave the office, and it is impossible to foretell when this may be. At such a moment, the Assistant Barbour Master is, as likely as not, away on the business of the Harbour Department, or perhaps on that of the Police, or the Fire Brigade, for both of which Departments he has duties to perform.
The matter is also influenced considerably by the
12. If the Harbour Master is to be held personally respon- -sible for, and is to personally superintend, every little detail of office work, I see no prospect of the present pressure upon his time ever diminishing, so long as he is left with his present staff of Chinese, who have, one and all, proved themselves unreliable.
Paragraph 4.
13. Until recently, it has been a rule in the Harbour Dep- -artment that no officer shall go out to lunch, unless absent on duty, without special permission. I relaxed this rule, some time ago, in the case of the Assistant Harbour Master, when he was stopping in a hotel from which they declined to send out meals. Subsequently, when I found my health giving way, I gave up having my own luncheon in the office, and following the example of all other Departments, went home for it. It is, however, absolutely necessary that the Harbour Office remain open during the luncheon hour, so that the wants of the merchant ships, which arrive and sail at all hours, may be attended to, without risk of their detention. It was for this reason that I empowered the 1st Clerk to sign receipts, &c:, during my temporary absences.
Paragraph 5.
14. Chinese clerks may have improved during recent years; of that I have no knowledge, as it is only of recent years that I have had anything to do with them in responsible positions. But my expe- -rience is that they cannot compare with the Portuguese with whom I have
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