Admiralty, 18 March 1857

1. The existing system of drawing Bills on the Accountant General of the Navy for the Full Pay of Officers of the Navy and Marines, is to be discontinued.

2. On the last day of every quarter, an account is to be prepared in duplicate, according to the annexed Form, showing the amount of Full Pay to which each Officer is entitled, and the deductions therefrom to which he may be liable, the net balance due to him by the Paymaster ; both copies are to be signed as originals, and one of them is to be retained on board the ship. Should any of the Officers be absent at the time of payment, their names are nevertheless to be included in the account, with a notation of the cause of their absence, and that they have no been paid.

3. This account is to be divided into two parts for Naval Officers, one for the "Commissioned Officers," the other for the "Assistant Engineers, Warrant, and Subordinate Officers," and a separate account for Marine officers.

4. The account being prepared according to the directions printed on the Form, is to be carefully examined with the Ship's Books and Accounts by the Paymaster, and his Assistant, or, where there is no Assistant Paymaster, by the Paymaster and the Master, who are to sign a certificate of such examination. In small vessels not bearing a Paymaster, the account is to be examined and certified by the Assistant Paymaster and the Master or Second Master.

5. As it can scarcely ever be necessary to prepare these accounts in a hurried manner, the Paymaster will be held responsible for the correctness of all the particulars inserted therein, the accounts are to be made up gradually and deliberately, so as to require but a small amount of labour to complete them at the end of the quarter.

6. The Captain will, if he sees no objection, authorise the Paymaster to procure money and make the payments ; if however he has an objection to the payment of any of the Officers, he will qualify his authority on the account accordingly, reporting the reasons for objecting to their Lordships for their decision.

7. Whenever the shall be at a port where there is an Admiralty Accountant, the Paymaster is to procure the money from the proper Officer, otherwise by requisition on the Commissariat Chest. If neither of these means are available, then he is to draw the money by Bill of Exchange on the Accountant General of the Navy, according to the regulations of the Service.

8. Payment is to be made in British coin, where it is procurable and current ; if British money cannot be made use of, then payment is to be made in foreign coins at the fixed official rates.

9. Every officer may remit at the time of the payment either the whole or a portion of the net amount he is entitled to receive ; such remittances may not be in even money, nor are they limited in amount, so long as they are within the net sum payable to the Officer.

10. Lists of these remittances are to be prepared for each account a day or two before the day of payment, in order that the Paymaster may be enabled to regulate his requisition for money accordingly.

11. The remittance lists are to be transmitted to the Accountant General of the Navy by the very first opportunity, to enable that officer to prepare and dispatch the remittance Bills for payment.

12. The quarterly accounts of Full Pay should, if ready, accompany the remittance lists ; if not, they should be transmitted with the Paymaster's cash account for the month in which the payment took place, which, in every possible case, should be the last day of the quarter.

13. Whenever an Officer is discharged from one ship to another, he is to be furnished with a certificate signed by the Captain and the Paymaster of the ship he is discharged from, showing the date up to which he was last paid, and the nature and amount of the charges incurred by him since the last payment, in order that he may receive his pay on board the ship he is discharged into.

14. Whenever an Officer is sent to Hospital or Sick Quarters, he may be paid the amount due to him up to the day he is sent sick (such payment to be entered in the Quarterly Account), and furnished with a certificate of the date to which he has been paid. If a further payment should become due while the Officer remains at sick quarters, he may be paid by the Agent under the approval of the Superintendent or Medical Officer in charge, who is to report such payment to the Admiralty by the first opportunity, and grant a certificate to the Officer of the time up to which he has been paid.

15. Officers discharged to Half-Pay are on no account to be paid by the Paymaster up to the date of discharge ; they are to be furnished with the usual Pay Documents, in order that their accounts may be adjusted at this Office.

16. Officers employed on detached duty, at a distance from the ships they belong to, are, on leaving the ship, to be furnished with the certificate mentioned in Article 13, by which means they may be paid by the Paymaster of any of Her Majesty's ships present, on producing such certificate to the Captain, who will give the necessary authority to the Paymaster, and acquaint the Captain of the ship to which the Officer belongs, in order that the necessary notation may be made on her books. He will also give a certificate to the Officer paid.

17. Surgeon-Superintendents of Convict Ships, and other Officers not borne on any ship's books, but who are entitled to Full Pay, or such Officers referred to in the foregoing Article as may be in charge of Prizes, or employed on other detached service, when no such certificate can be obtained, are to draw bills quarterly for the amount due to them, in the common bill form, advising the Accountant General of the Navy of every such bill.

18. Officers entitled to allowances in addition to their usual pay, whether for Table Money, Surveying Duties, or on any other account, are to be paid the same not oftener than once a quarter, upon a separate account or statement, showing the nature of the allowances and every other necessary particular, but they are not to draw bills for such allowances in future.

19. Nothing herein contained is to justify the payment of Half-Pay under any circumstances whatever, without special directions.

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