CO129-387 - Individuals - 1911 — Page 235

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affairs.

And it is one of the principal earning Departments of

the Colonial Government, its revenue being many times greater

than its expenditure; and this revenue has recently been nearly

doubled, by the transfer to the Department of the duty of collec-

-ting certain fees which had previously been collected by the

Police and Registrar General's Departments. Yet the Harbour

Department has been systematically belittled and starved for many

years. That this is so, the published statistics alone clearly

demonstrate. In 1874 the Harbour Master's Salary was £1,000 per

annum; in 1897 it was £775; it is now, at its maximum, £900 a

year. The Assistant Harbour Master's salary in 1874 amounted to

£750 per annum; in 1899 it was £375, and is now £450 rising to

£540 per annum. In the same way, the salaries of the clerical

staff of the Department are now but a fraction of those received

in 1874, with the natural result that men of a different class,

fewer attainments, and less reliability are alone obtainable,

Chinese, in fact, have taken the place of Englishmen. In the

outdoor staff, also, the Boarding Officers are in receipt of

salaries which barely equal those paid to mates of coasting stea-

-mers, yet they are generally men who have commanded ships.

During this same period, many additional duties have been thrust

upon the Department, entailing more work and longer hours. At

the same time, the salaries of all other Government Departments

have been substantially increased, and in no other Department is

the senior accountant a Chinese. I may mention that the time

chosen for the appointment of the Chinese accountant to the Har-

-bour Department was just when its revenue was about to be so

largely increased, as above related.

7. Since it bears upon the same subject, I may, per-

-haps, be permitted to refer here to the matter of the allowance

from the late Transvaal Government to the Harbour Master for work

done on their behalf in connection with Chinese Emigrant ships

conveying