Upon examining the nature of nepotism and the lavishing of money belonging to Shaw's Creditors and transferring it into that of Mr. Hogg without any sufficient reason, I did refuse and still adhere to the refusal to sanction such conduct. Besides, no fee was marked or paid according to rule, as allowed in taxation in England (and the English rules prevail here) unless it has been marked and signed according to rule, and on principle, I disallowed any fee to her. Hogg, and this is in fact the whole of Dr. Gibbon's complaint against me.
I have caused the most careful inquiries to be made, and I find that in 1864, on the sale of 380/390 Dents' Houses, which realised $10,000, Mr. Pollard received a consultation fee of $50 and a fee on settling conditions of sale of $200. How that happened is explicable by those who knew the parties involved. With that exception, no fee or commission on settling any conditions of sale of property in the Colony has, I believe, ever been paid.
Here, $5,000 was anticipated to be the utmost that could be realised on the sale.
(Signed) John Smale
Chief Justice.