2

MEMORIAL OF THE UNDERSIGNED, AN OFFICER IN lIER MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS AT THE PORT OF WELLINGTON. (Read and Received April 29th, 1856.) To the Honorable the Members of the House of Representatives of New Zealand in Parliament assembled. Humbly sheweth, That your Memorialist entered the Customs at Wellington in April, 1848, as Chief Clerk and Warehousekeeper, at £130 per annum, and was promoted in August, 1851, to the office of First Landing Waiter, at £200 per annum. That Mr. William Seed was appointed in July, 1853, to the office of chief clerk and warehousekeeper, at £160 per annum, and that, after he had held that office for six months only, the Collector at Wellington recommended to the Officer Administering the Government that he should have his salary raised to the same amount as your Memorialist, viz., £200, without recommending at the same time any advance in the salary of your Memorialist, who continued to receive only the same rate of salary until October, 1854. That your Memorialist considers that the withholding from him any advance of salary for this period of nine months implied a censure upon your Memorialist, who is not aware that he has been charged with any dereliction of duty. That your Memorialist believes that the Collector of Customs at Wellington has, in more than one instance, acted arbitrarily and illegally, in depriving your Memorialist of the benefit of certain seizures made by him, which your Memorialist believes he is in a position to establish. That the Collector of Customs, on the occasion of his leaving Wellington in January last, for a shoit period, for the Chatham Islands, on public business, recommended to his Excellency the Governor that Captain Sharp should be permanently appointed to the offices of Deputy Collector and Landing Surveyor, although that gentleman had previously held ail inferior office to your Memorialist; and that the Collector obliged your Memorialist to sign the " Appearance Book" second, instead of first, as heretofore, by which your Memorialist has been degraded in the sen-ice. That such a course tends seriously to dispirit officers, when they find that their just claims to promotion are overlooked. That the Collector has lately arbitrarily deprived the officers concerned of payment for extra attendance, when their seivices are required by merchants, 'with the Collector's consent, to superintend the landing of goods beyond the legal hours, although such a practice is sanctioned by the Honorable Board of Customs in England, and has prevailed at Wellington, and other ports in New Zealand. Your Memorialist, therefore, hopes that your Honorable House will cause enquiries to be made into the truth of his statements, believing that your Honorable House will redress his grievances. And your Memorialist, as in duty bound, will ever pray. (Signed) EDWARD CATCH POOL, First Landing Waiter of Her Majesty's Customs, Wellington. Wellington, March 15, 1 fc5G. REPORT. The Select Committee of the House of Representatives, appointed May 1, 1856, to whom was referred the Petition of Edward Catchpool, report as follows:— Your Committee, after a careful examination into the several particulars set forth in the petition of Edward Catchpool, first landing waiter at the Port of Wellington, as well as into its general bearing (during which their enquiries have extended over six sittings), are of opinion that the matters referred to therein are of great importance, and affect, not merely the individual interests ot hj Petitioner, but likewise the future efficiency of the department to which he belongs.