24
those subordinates who had to fill up the Forms with only the date I advert to I cannot understand how so many
247 Notices came to receive a
wrong
date out of 2,000 and upwards as were
served at Hongkong: For the error (however
it occurred) I am
There is nothing
to show that the remaining 1753
notices were correct. And I am within
my knowledge
have found persons
personally responsible, on defective produce.
sincerely
I frankly admit it and as
regret it...
In the Postscript of
my
letter No. 55 I
never pleaded the XIX clause of the
Ordinance as
exonerating the Registrar
from a proper discharge of his duties,
I drew attention to the clause to show
that the error may be palliated by
Mr. Firth has been asked to produce a correct return such: has failed to do so.
The
fact is
that the error was so the clause as to be (as I conceived) of no avail.
it may be got over.
Technical
or merely technical
legal defect; and,
I may
be permitted to say that had not the Legislative Council foreseen the likelihood of
some
errors or omissions in connection with
the working of the Provisions of the
New
new enactment it is not probable that the XIX clause would have been retained in the Ordinance.
It is now my painful obligation to
refer to that portion of your letter in
which
you
call
my veracity into
question and in which
a play upon words.
what does Mr. Firth
mean by his words is attributed to me which is not
in No. 55 of 13th
October as contained as asserted by
the
14 instant the
of
by you
my
Court & common letter of this 13th Instant: I never said
"jurisdiction granted
204 warrants" that "warrants had been issued
"
but that "warrants" had been "granted,
that such was the Decree of the Court upon my applications for 204 warrants: It would be but just that where a charge is preferred against a Public Officer conveying a doubt as to the correctness of his statements that a little more consideration should be manifested before so serious an attack is made upon the validity of his assertions; but having already
an