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Masterman's Bank will in the course of this month pay a small dividend to its creditors, but it would be unwise to look for any large receipt from that source for some time to come, unless the opinion which it appears is maintained in the Colony is correct, that the Government of Hong Kong has a preferential claim on the assets of the Company, but this is a legal question on which the Solicitor to the Treasury might doubtless be advantageously consulted. In the 5th paragraph of his despatch Sir R.G. MacDonnell says "our remittances to the Crown Agents still unacknowledged by them amount to £56,000". I have already stated that £95,000 of that amount had been brought to account last year, it is however true that the remaining £41,000 had not been similarly accounted for because the bills for that amount had not matured, but I have to add that the invariable practice of the Crown Agents is to acknowledge the receipt by first outgoing Mail of all remittances, that the rule has been duly observed in the case of Hong Kong and that whilst I cannot undertake to say that the letters of acknowledgment were delivered by the post office Servant at the Colonial Secretary's Office in that