Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 253

GOVERNMENT GUNPOWDER DEPOT.

249

39. During the year 1894 there has been stored in the Government Magazine Stone Cutters' Island:-

No. of Cases, &c.

Approximate Weight.

lbs.

Gunpowder, privately owned,

Do., Government owned,...

Cartridges, privately owned,..

Do., Government owned,

18,920

519,983

3,673

492,912

72

5,958

Explosive Compounds, privately owned,.......

5,098

320,380

Do.,

Government owned,

28

1,759

Total,.......

On the 31st December, 1894, there remained as under:--

27,791

1,340,992

No. of Cases.

Approximate Weight.

Gunpowder, privately owned,

6,563

tbs. 164,868

Do., Government owned,.

Cartridges, privately owned,..

2,866

377,931

Do., Government owned,

27

1,208

Explosive Compounds, privately owned,

2,115

95,468

Do.,

Government owned,

24

1,120

Total,.......

GENERAL.

11,595

640,595

40. There has been no change in the staff of the Harbour Department during the year under review. The first Boarding Officer and the Principal Lightkeeper have been granted leave of absence to England.

The Assistant Harbour Master has continued to perform the duties of the Second Magistrate, an arrangement which when assented to by me was thought would be merely temporary but which has now lasted for nearly 3 years. The arrangement is unsatisfactory. Captain HASTINGS by working out of hours is able to perform those duties which are independent of the Harbour Master, such as the compila- tion of statistical records, the arrangement of the buoys in the harbour (nearly all of which were relaid last year) and so on; but, as he is generally absent from the Harbour Ofice for half of the usual office hours, he is unable to take up the general management of the details of the Department, which I take to be the meaning of the words "to assist the Harbour Master in the performance of his various duties,” and which is the first of the Assistant Harbour Master's duties as laid down.

Opinions have from time to time been expressed as to the abolition of the post of Assistant Harbour Master, and at times even those who have not sufficient knowledge of the subject to entitle their opinion to serious consideration, have nevertheless not refrained from expressing it.

Whatever opinion, however, may be held on that point one thing I think is certain, namely, that an Assistant Harbour Master who is not in a position to fully assist in duties connected with the Harbour Department, is an anomaly, and places the Harbour Master in a false position.

The following opinion expressed by me to the Retrenchment Commission appears in their report. As these opinions are sometimes lost sight of, and as I hold this one strongly still, it may I think well find a place of record in this annual report.

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"I consider that with much advantage both to the public and the Government service the Water "Police might be made a branch of the Harbour Department and the Harbour Master appointed Super- "intendent and the Assistant Harbour Master Deputy Superintendent and practical head thereof.