Again Mr. Wotton having been the Solicitor to the estate hired by his able management from March 1878 of the assets including the lease of which Mr. Gibbons complains secured good dividends. He knew better than anyone the colony, the circumstances of the estate. It was not in the interests of anyone else in the estate to displace him, therefore sacrificing the interests of the estate. I never knew before a Solicitor to an estate displaced by an official Assignee and I incline to think that the Official Assignee, who is subject to the orders of the Court in his conduct as "Official Assignee" by Rec. 88, has not the power without the express authority of the Court to remove such a solicitor.
The houses were advertised on the 7th of September in the "Daily Press" for sale at an auction to be held on the 28th of September with a reference to Messrs Stephens & Holmes as the Solicitors to the Official Assignee.
Mr. Wotton on the morning of the 8th of September applied to me on behalf of his clients, creditors in the Bankruptcy, for a summons in Chambers to obtain an order to stay the sale as being prejudicial to their interests. I granted the summons to be returnable immediately. Immediately Mr. Gibbons came to my Chambers and I told him what I had done in order that he might be prepared.