COURTS (6)
Continuation.
250
The jury after a short retirement, brought in a unanimous verdict, of guilty on all the counts. Counsel for the prisoner moved for an arrest of judgment the following points of law being afterwards reserved in his favour by the Full Court :- As to the first count (a) That the only money prisoner was proved to have received and was charged with having stolen were moneys received by him as Official Assignee and as part of the property in the bankrupt estates; (b) that as Official Assignee prisoner was not in the public service of Her Majesty in this Colony; and (c) that the moneys were not and never in any sense public moneys.
On November 11, the Full Court delivered judgment overruling the different points reserved, and the prisoner was brought up for sentence. Mr. Justice Snowden, addressing him, said : "The maximum penalty under the Fraudulent Trustee Act is seven years, and I am sorry to say that I think that term is scarcely adequate to your offence. I certainly should not be doing my duty if I awarded you a shorter period than that. The sentence is that you be imprisoned in Victoria Gaol and kept in penal servitude for a period of seven years.
In September, the Government consequent upon the discovery of the defalcations in Mr. Huffam's accounts, had appointed a Committee to inquire into certain offices of the Supreme Court but this Committee, probably waiting for the result of Mr. Huffam's trial never acted, and On November 7, after his conviction, the Government appointed a fresh Commission consisting of Mr. Charles May the acting Colonial Secretary and Auditor-General, Mr. Phillippo (Attorney-General), Mr. Thomas Jackson and Mr. Wotton to inquire as to whether or not greater precautions may be adopted for the security of moneys and other securities deposited with the Supreme Court. The Committee subsequently presented its report embodying in all some thirteen recommendations, but the main point in connection with Huffam's affairs was, that his accounts had never been audited and the man had thus been left practically to himself or the creditors of estates to shift for themselves.
This irregularity was afterwards rectified by a system of audit being inaugurated and effectively carried out in the Supreme Court in 1879.
Page 251
COURTS (7)
The Hongkong Telegraph of September 3, 1891, published a list of barristers-at-law and solicitors then practising in Hongkong. It seems fairly obvious that the list was compiled by Mr. Robert Frazer-Smith, editor of the Telegraph. Mr. Frazer-Smith had good reason to be well-acquainted with the legal profession of Hongkong for he made regular appearances in the Supreme Court, mostly for the purpose of contesting libel actions. The following is an expurgated version, of Mr. Frazer-Smith's article which he headed "The Local Devil's Own"