No. 65

I have the honor to acknowledge your Despatch No. 66 of the 31st of
August, forwarding the claims made by Mr. Pemberton the Surveyor
General, and by Mr. Pearse his Assistant, to certain portions of the
Surveyor General's Salary during Mr. Pemberton's last absence in
England.

Mr. Pemberton, it seems, has a short time before the present
occasion been absent on leave for a period of 15 months. He returned to
the Colony in March 1861.

In April 1863 he proposed to Sir James Douglas that he should come
home on full pay, but defraying his own expenses, in order to
superintend the construction of certain machinery: and the Governor
accordingly gave him leave on those terms, remarking in his Report to
the Secretary of State that Mr. Pemberton had undertaken that his
absence from the Colony should not exceed six months.

The Duke of Newcastle in a Despatch to the governor of the 8th of
June, acquiesced, but with the remark that Mr. Pemberton could not be
allowed to draw full Salary for a greater period than six months. This
Despatch of course did not reach the Colony until long after Mr.
Pemberton had left it.

Mr. Pemberton afterwards obtained, from the Secretary of State an
addition to his leave of three months and then another of two months but
I do not find that on either occasion any mention was made in the
letters to him of the limitation of his full pay to the original term
of six months .

In December 1863 he asked for a further extension. The Duke of
Newcastle animadverted on these repeated requests, and upon Mr.
Pemberton's having deferred the last until it scarcely left the
Secretary of State an option: but Mr. Pemberton declared that this was
not the case, and was allowed at his own wish to withdraw his
application. The correspondence is enclosed. His whole leave
therefore amounted to eleven months, and as he quitted the Colony on the
2nd or 3rd of April 1863, it expired on the 2nd or 3rd of March 1864.
It now appears however, that he did not in fact arrive until the 26th of
March, or more than three weeks after the expiration of his leave.

Governor Douglas ordered full salary to be issued to Mr. Pemberton
for the first six months of his absence, but afterwards appropriated
half to him, and half to his Assistant Mr. Pearse who was doing the
duty. Mr. Pearse however wishes to obtain half of the Surveyor
General's Salary for the original six months of his absence, and Mr.
Pemberton applies for the moiety which has been withheld from him after
that period, so far at least, he adds, as the vote of the House will
admit, since he has no wish to interfere with any arrangement made for
the benefit of Mr. Pearse.

I regret that I cannot instruct you to accede to Mr. Pearse's
application. Since Mr. Pemberton was allowed by the Governor to come
home for six on full salary, it is impossible to issue half of the
Salary of the same office to Mr. Pearse. On the other hand I cannot but
entirely approve of Governor Douglas's having afterwards assigned half
the Salary to Mr. Pearse. This was conformable to rule, was equitable
in itself, and was undoubtedly the course which the Secretary of State
intended to be followed. It is sufficiently apparent from the
correspondence that no great value was attached to Mr. Pemberton's
presence in England during the completion of a dredging-machine, being
only one of the numerous kinds of supplies which the Crown Agents
are quite familiar with furnishing to the Colonies. Nevertheless as Mr.
Pemberton, in asking for more leave, recapitulated the conditions on
which he had come away from the Colony, and as he may plead that he
remained in this Country under an erroneous expectation as to salary,
derived from the official letters which granted him his extended leave,
I should not feel myself at liberty to refuse my sanction to your
allowing him all or any part of the second moiety of his half salary for
the period for which he has as yet only drawn one moiety in case you
have it in your power to do so from any Colonial funds that can lawfully
be so appropriated.