The term "Professional Fees" is applicable to the Surveyor General and Harbour Master; but bearing in mind the want of a private Architect and Engineer, and the existence of but one Marine Surveyor in the Colony, we consider the private practice of these two officers to have been, and under proper restriction to be, of public benefit.
7. I would here notice the Receiver General being qualified to survey, or at least to measure vessels, is not required by a local Ordinance, No. 4 of 1855, this duty is required of the Harbour Master; and it is so required with a view to diminish the expense which falls on Traders and the smaller Ship-owners in procuring Registers for their vessels.
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8. In connection with the Fees levied for the Administration of Justice, the following questions are respectfully submitted to Your Lordship for decision:
Would it not be expedient that some rule should be laid down with regard to trading by Government Officers? There is a very honourable distinction between "Personal" and "Professional Fees".
Also with regard to Fees, and more especially to "Professional Fees", are the views worth having? Should any exception be made to the apparently comprehensive wording used in Clause 1 of "Regula Generalis" of 12th March 1847, transmitted in Sir J. Davis's Despatch No. 139 of 17th April 1847?
"And all Fees received by the Registrar, as well as those received by the inferior Officers of the Court, shall be accounted for quarterly by them respectively to the Colonial Treasury."