No. 59

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Grace's despatch
No 55 of the 1st May,
forwarding a letter from Mr Heseltine
representing that a sum of
Sixty six Pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence (£66.13.4) was due at the time of his decease to his late
son, on account of salary as Steam Inspector to this Government.

2. With reference to the above claim I have the honor to acquaint
your Grace, that Mr Heseltine
was appointed to the office of Inspecting Engineer as represented, but he
never completed any one
single Act of the important duty it was intended he should perform,
altho' many times called upon to do so; alleging as a reason that he
was waiting until he could obtain apparatus suitable for testing the
peculiar boilers used on this coast. It would seem from a letter
addressed by him to the Harbour Master in reply to a Requisition for
a Report on the condition of the Steam vessels, that he had been on
board most of them and had made a provisional inspection as he termed
it. No Certificates of the fact were however forthcoming, and I am
inclined to believe these provisional inspections consisted mainly in
using his reputed Office for the purpose of obtaining passages
backwards and forwards between this place and British Columbia, and
up the Fraser River, in the different steam vessels.

3. For these reasons I considered that
Mr Heseltine could not be
regarded as having any claim to a salary which was to be given for specific services rendered, and it would almost
appear that Mr
Heseltine so regarded it himself, for he never preferred any claim.

4. At the time of Mr Heseltines
appointment, from the number of high pressure steam vessels running between these Colonies, it was
highly desirable if not
indispensable as a necessary security to life and property that the Office of Inspecting Engineer should be created.
Mr Heseltine was brought to my notice,
as a person possessing superior attainments as an Engineer both theoretically and
practically, of most respectable connections, and, in short, as the only thoroughly qualified individual in the community. These
representations I have every reason to believe were
strictly correct,
but unfortunately he was also a person of dissolute and erratic
habits, and much given to inebriety. Of this I only became aware
after his death, but to these propensities unquestionably may be
attributed the non-performance of the duties of his Office.