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1873. NEW ZEALAND.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE TO MR. BULLER, (FURTHER PAPERS RESPECTING).
Presented to both Souses of the General Assembly by command of Sis Excellency.
No. 1. The Hon. W. Gisborne to Dr. Featheeston. Str,— Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, sth July, 1872. I perceive from the accounts recently received from you that Mr. Buller has been drawing full salary at the rate of £400 a year, as acting Secretary to yourself, in addition to the half-salary of £200 a year allowed him during his eighteen months' leave of absence as Eesident Magistrate at Wanganui. I presume, of course, that you would not have authorized him to draw full "salary as Secretary to yourself unless you were satisfied that he had performed its duties, but I wish to draw your attention to the correspondence which passed between Mr. Buller and myself in April, 1871, relative to his. leave of absence, and which is published in the Appendix (G. No. 30) to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1871. I enclose a copy of this correspondence. Mr Buller, in his letter to me of 6th April, 1871, makes the following statement: —" I may state further that my salary as Resident Magistrate at Wanganui is £400 a year, but that, reckoning Registrar's fees and other allowances, my total income from official sources amounts to about £600 a year." You will perceive from my letters of the 9th and 12th April, 1871, that the evident wish of the Government was that Mr. Buller's absence in England, on the New Zealand scientific work on which he was about to engage, should not deprive him of part of his official income, and that, in reliance on his general statement that such income amounted to "about £600 a year," I authorized him to draw in addition to his half-salary a sum not exceeding £400 per annum for services as your acting Secretary, making in all the sum of £600 per annum. At the same time, it is also evident that the Government did not wish to increase by any appreciable amount his official income, and that they regarded Mr. Buller's expression " about £600 a year" as conveying the obvious meaning that his income was within a few pounds more or less of that amount. I find from Treasury Accounts, which I have since received, that Mr. Buller's income from official sources in tho Colony during the financial year 1870-71 (the year immediately preceding his departure to England), amounted, as noted below,* to £535 16s. 6d., and that in each of the two previous years it amounted to a considerably smaller sum. I amunable to reconcile this apparent discrepancy between Mr. Buller's statement of his annual income in the Colony from official sources and the " Return " furnished by the Treasury, and I have to request you to be'good enough to call on Mr Buller for an explanation. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. W. Gisbobne.
No. 2. The Hon. G. M. Waterhottse to Dr. Eeatherston. Sir, — Colonial Secretary's Office, "Wellington, 6th December, 1872. Referring to Mr. Gisborne's letter No. 65, of the sth July last, in which he informs you that a vote was about to be submitted to the House of Representatives of £200, for payment to Mr. Duller during the proposed six months' extension of his leave of absence, I have the honor to inform you that the vote having passed, Mr Bullcr will be entitled to draw at the rate of £200 for six months from Ist of January next. His leave of absence will expire on 30th June, 1873. I have, &c, G-. M. Waterhottse, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. (for Hon. Colonial Secretary). * Resident Magistrate, £400; forage, £79 125.; Returning Officer, £25; Registrar of Births, £31 4s. 6d.— total, £535 16s. 6d. EL—ll.