23

8.—17

The Hon. Mr. Ballance. —Enclosed is the answer prepared for Dr. Pollen, which you suggested my keeping back till you re-discussed the matter with the Attorney-General. This is another request for a reply.—G. S. W.

No. 56. The Hon. Dr. Pollen to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaet. Sic, — Wellington Club, Wellington, New Zealand, 6th December, 1878. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of date 4th December instant. My application for my retiring allowance was made to you on the 13th October, 1877, and you now inform me that " the Law Officers of the Crown advise that, as no salary was appropriated for the offices held by me during the last three years of my service as set forth in my application, excepting that drawn by me as a Minister, it is not legally competent for the Governor to direct that any specific amount shall be awarded to me as a pension." In June, 1873, a month before I was honored by and appointed to the office of Colonial Secretary, I had reached my sixtieth year, and might then have secured the advantage provided by clause 33 of "The Civil Service Act, 1866," and retired with the half-pay of the offices then held by me, which would have given me a pension as large as I could have hoped to obtain by a much longer service. I might also have enjoyed the advantage of receiving that pension in addition to the pay drawn by me as a Minister. If I had then retired, however, it would have been necessary to fill the offices vacated, and to provide a salary for my successor. I took the labour and the serious responsibility of continuing to hold my Civil Service appointments in conjunction with my Ministerial offices until, by the operations of " The Disqualification Act, 1876," I was forced to resign them or to vacate my seat in the Legislature. I had thus saved to the public the charges of salary of my Civil Service offices and the annual payment of the pension to which I was entitled. It now appears that, in so far as my personal interests are concerned, I have made a grand mistake. I cannot believe, however, that I shall be allowed to suffer for it permanently. On the 28th June last, having failed to receive any answer to previous communications on the subject of my retiring allowance, I did myself the honor to ask that you would do me the favour to inform me why it was that I had been denied the ordinary courtesy of an official reply to my official letters. Not having received an answer I again, in my letter of 2nd December instant, repeated that request. In the letter now before me no notice is taken of these requests. lam forced again therefore to ask that you will be good enough to inform me why the ordinary courtesy of an official reply to an official communication has been so long denied to me. I respectfully crave the favour of a speedy reply. I have, &c, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Daniel Pollen. Memoeandtjm.—Mr. Cooper. —Reply that the question was necessarily a long time under consideration, and the answer was sent as soon as the reply was received from the Law Officers.—G. S. W.—■ 10th December, 1878.

No. 57. The Hon. the Colonial Seceetaet to the Hon. Dr. Pollen. Sib, — Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 11th December, 1878. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, requesting to be informed why you had been so long denied an official answer to an official communication on the subject of your retiring allowance. In reply, I have to state that the question was necessarily a long time under consideration by the Government, and the answer was sent as soon as the reply was received from the Law Officers, to whom it had been referred. I have, &c, The Hon. Dr. Pollen, M.L.C., Wellington. G. 8. Whitmoee.

No. 58. The Hon. Dr. Pollen to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaet. Sir,— Wellington, 11th October, 1879. By " The Disqualification Act, 1876," I being then a member of the Legislative Council, and holding appointments in the Civil Service of the colony, was placed in a dilemma, and forced to resign my seat in the Council and my place in the Executive, or to retire from the Civil Service. I chose the latter alternative, and, on the 30th October, 1876, the day before the Disqualification Act came into operation, I tendered to the Hon. Major Atkinson, then Premier, my resignation of the offices of Government Agent at Auckland, Sub-Treasurer aud Paymaster Imperial Pensions, Receiver of Land Revenue, and Commissioner of Confiscated Lands then held by me. On the next day, 31st October, I received a letter from the Hon. the Premier, in which I was informed that His Excellency the Governor had been pleased to accept my resignation, without prejudice to my claim to a retiring allowance. No further action was taken by me in the matter until the resignation of the Ministry of which I was a member, in October, 1877. On the 13th of that month I addressed a letter to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, respectfully requesting that His Excellency the Governor should be moved to grant to me the retiring allowance to which, under the provisions of the Civil Service Acts, I might be found to be entitled, on and from the date (30th October, 1876) at which my resignation of the offices in the Civil Service held by me had been accepted.