 
                  
                  
                     Mr Elliot
                     It has been usual and apparently sufficient in order
                     to enable Cox & Co to draw the salary of the Governor of
                     Bermuda to furnish them upon their application for presentation
                     to the Paymaster General with a certificate of the form in
                     use at this office.
                     
 
                  
                  
                     The Paymaster General appears now to require independently
                     of this certificate an additional authority from the Treasury which I
                     suppose would only issue on the receipt of a letter from this office.
                     
                  
                  
                     I suppose the Treasury should be asked, though it would
                     be for the first time, to issue the authority required by
                     the Paymaster General.
                     
                  
                  
                     A precisely inverted course was recently observed with
                     respect to the salary of 
Colonel Moody of 
British Columbia.
                     It was usual in this case upon the receipt of a letter from
                     Cox & Co to

 request the Treasury to authorize the issue of
                     
Colonel Moody's salary and, on hearing this had been done, to
                     inform Cox & Co but without sending them a certificate of the
                     kind abovementioned.
                     
                     On the application of Messrs Cox for 
Colonel Moodys
                     salary for 
the last December quarter the same course was by
                     inadvertence followed as has been usual in the case of the
                     Governor of Bermuda—i.e. they were simply furnished with a
                     certificate—this proved insufficient and the inadvertence
                     had to be rectified by following the usual course in the case
                     of 
Colonel Moody—viz of simply writing to the Treasury.
                     
                     But when on the application of Messrs Cox for the issue
                     of 
Colonel Moody's [pay] for the 
last March quarter, the usual
                     course was followed (viz of writing to the Treasury) the
                     Paymaster for the first time refused to issue the Salary without
                     the production of a certificate of the abovenamed kind.
                     
 
                  
                  
                     I suppose in future the course will be to write to the
                     Treasury and, on receiving an answer, to inform Messrs
                     Cox also sending them a certificate.
                     
                  
                  
                     But I have gone into the case in case you should think it
                     worth while to ask the Treasury to explain the departure from
                     the usual practice in 
Colonel Ord's case as well as in 
Colonel Moodys.