I was of opinion that to prepare these conditions was within the Official duty of the Official Assignee, especially here where all property is leasehold held under the Crown and the conditions are usually most simple, the exceptional specialty being slight and such as Mr. Gibbons could and ought to have himself drawn the provision for. I disallowed these charges, but on Mr. Burr Stophouse subsequently applying for them, I allowed them, but he declined to accept them. The only real question was as to whether Mr. Gibbons had a right to direct his Solicitors to submit the conditions to Counsel to be settled. Mr. Stephens expressly said he should, if acting on his own judgement, not have submitted the conditions to any Counsel to settle them, but that he had an order from Mr. Gibbons to do so. I thought that Counsel's aid was unnecessary, and that if it were necessary, the ablest and not the junior Barrister should be consulted.
I note that Mr. Hogg, the last address on record for him in 1880, is Diamond Diggings, South Africa, and I had heard that he had been a pupil of, had come out and was practising with Mr. Gibbons. I felt, therefore, that the attempt to give a fee to Mr. Hogg was in the nature of a gratuity.