3

8.—13 a.

" Appointed from the Ist instant, at a salary of five hundred pounds (£500) a year and a travelling-allowance of ten shillings and sixpence (10s. 6d.) a day, to be a Valuer for the business of the Government Advances to Settlers Office, as well as for any business to which I may authorise you to attend the other departments of the Government service. The appointment is, as you are aware, made on the condition that you have relinquished all private business, and that you will devote yourself exclusively to the service of the Government, and was, at your own suggestion, deferred until the Ist inst., when you would completely fulfil that condition. " I have already allotted you an office adjoining my own in the Government Insurance Buildings, and you will be provided with what stationery and furniture may be necessary, with a book for a register of the valuations which you may make, or on which you may report, and with maps of the survey districts in which the relative securities are situated. I propose also to arrange that you may be supplied by the Survey Department with any information which that department can conveniently afford, and you may think it necessary or prudent to obtain, for the purpose of your reports ; and in order that your correspondence on the business of this office may be facilitated, and you may communicate with applicants for advances without exposing, by the use of the envelopes for ordinary correspondence on the business of this office, the subject of your communications, I am applying that you may be authorised to frank letters as on the public service. I am asking, too, that you may be authorised to similarly frank telegrams. " Tae object of your appointment is to secure generally a competent revision of the reports of the local valuers whom I may casually employ to inspect and estimate the values of the securities ; and thus to prevent any reasonable apprehension from arising that advances may be made on estimates of value which are not proved to be satisfactory by the careful scrutiny of an expert in the service of the Government. " In the form of report which I require from a Valuer, you will observe that provision is made for all the important particulars respecting the securities. I have endeavoured to secure a note of _every circumstance of a property that may affect its value, my purpose being to make the form itself an evidence of the desire of the office to obtain all the information that the most circumspect of private lenders could expect; and, if it should be thought a fault by some persons to ascertain more than they may think necessary of the particulars of a security, this fault will, at all events, be less serious than that of an insufficient enquiry. " The form of application for a loan has been supplied to all the Postmasters of the colony, with the instructions of the Postmaster-General, of which a copy is enclosed ; and the Commissioners of Crown Lands have been instructed by the circular of which a copy is also enclosed respecting the notice which applicants for advances on the security of Crown leaseholds are required to give to those Commissioners. " The course which I shall make it a rule to follow will be to direct a local valuer to inspect every property, and to forward respecting it, for the examination and remarks of one of the Valuers (permanently appointed like yourself), a report on the security, including an estimate of its realisable value. " I enclose a copy of the Act, a copy of the regulations made under the Act, a copy of each of the forms which have been printed for the purpose of the application for a loan, and a copy of each of the forms of instruction to a Valuer to report respecting a security, and of the Valuer's report. "lam, &c, " J. K. Wabbtjbton, Superintendent." The condition of the appointment of each of the three Eeviewing Valuers, that they should, with the concurrence of the Advances to Settler's Office, render any service required of them in connection with valuation by other public departments, was communicated to the Minister in the following memorandum : — " Government Advances to Settlers Office, Wellington, " Sir,— 13th February, 1895. " The appointments of Messrs. William Duncan, of Auckland, Thomas Kennedy Macdonald, of Wellington, and Hugh Carswell, of Invercargill, to be Valuers for the business of the Government Advances to Settlers Office, have been made on the condition that they should give to the business of the other departments of the Government service whatever attention may, with the concurrence of the Advances to Settlers Office, be required of them in connection with valuations. " A reference to these officers should be sufficient to insure a reliable estimate of the value of properties in the cases in which such an estimate would be of importance to the Government, and should generally secure a complete and satisfactory review of the reports of other valuers when the circumstances are such as to render such a review necessary or expedient. " I'hese officers are capable of affording to the Government any service that may be required as valuers or as superintending or revising valuers, and, if the public departments should have occasion to employ such services to any large extent, the appointments will be of public benefit, and will promote economy in the Government service. In the cases in which questions may arise of importance to the Government or its departments as to the values of land, it cannot but be reassuring to have the recourse of a careful scrutiny by experts in the Government service. " With these remarks I offer the suggestion that the departments might be informed of the general service which the Valuers permanently appointed to the Advances to Settlers Office may, by the terms of their appointment, be required to perform, and that these Valuers might accordingly be employed by the departments in all cases where the departments require such services, and where the Valuers can be properly employed with advantage, and their employment will not conflict with existing arrangements. "J. K. Wabbukton, Superintendent, " The Hon. Mr. McKenzie"