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open court, in the usual manner, and an order was made authorizing me to sell. The property was then advertised for sale, and negotiations entered into with the agent for the parties entitled in reversion (who were in America), and as time was necessary for communication with them, the sale by auction was not fixed until after their final answer was received. It then appeared that the then official assignee had neglected to register his appointment, and until that was done the title was defective. Accordingly an order which had been made by the Court in September, 1878, had to be drawn up and registered, so as to comply with the Ordinance No. 5, of 1864, sec. LXXXV., and complete the title-the day of sale was then fixed and advertised. The conditions of sale were prepared, and the auctioneer instructed. Yesterday, without any previous intimation on the subject, the Chief Justice sent for me and required to know if I had any authority for issuing the advertisement for sale which he then had in his hand. I replied that I had, and produced the order under the seal of the court. He then demanded to see the minute book which I produced. Enquiring in a most insulting manner, as though I had been proceeding in a clandestine way without any authority-and when he found that every step had been taken in the most regular way, and that the order had been made by himself, he said it was an improvident order which ought not to have been made. He then informed me that Mr. Wotton had objected to the proposed sale, as not being for the benefit of the estate, and handed me an affidavit of Mr. Wotton in which it was stated that on behalf of three creditors named and others not named he objected to the sale as not being for the benefit of the estate-the three creditors named were I believe all females whose proofs amounted to some $5,000 out of about $36,000 total proofs. I then explained to the Chief Justice as the fact was that Mr. Wotton had objected, when the advertisement for sale first appeared in May last, not to the sale, but to the employment of Messrs. Stephens and Holmes, his own firm having been employed in the matter by my predecessor in office. I further stated the objection to my continuing the management of property of that character, on which the Chief Justice stated that my objection rested on mere gossip, and as I had no affidavit of the facts, he would not receive my statement. This I replied, that my information was derived, as in fact it was, from the books of the Registrar General in which three of the
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houses in question were entered as licensed brothels.
On this (the Chief Justice turning to Mr. Wotton who had come into the room meanwhile, asked what order he desired, and told me I was talking nonsense, and insulted me so grossly, that I could not with due regard to my own self-respect take any further part in the discussion.
The Chief Justice thereupon, contrary to what he laid down in the case of Pustau's Bankruptcy, directed that a meeting of creditors should be called to appoint a creditors' assignee to relieve me from my position, and in the mean time stayed the proposed sale. Now as regards myself, I am quite content to be relieved from a position which I feel is as unbecoming to myself as to the court of which I am an officer, but the action of the Chief Justice in Pustau's case, which prevented the creditors (who were anxious to elect an assignee) from taking that course on the ground that by the ordinance it was only at the first meeting the creditors had the right to choose, and in the present case, his ruling that they have a right to choose at a subsequent meeting, although they have already exercised their choice, and the assignees chosen have been removed, and the official assignee appointed in their place, has placed me in such a position, that I know not what to do. There is such a degree of uncertainty about it, that it is impossible to act, and while the Chief Justice holds, as I understand he does, that he has the right to make me personally liable for costs in cases where I differ from him in opinion, it will be seen that my objection to the present proceedings is one of the very gravest character and sufficient to justify, if not demand, immediate action on the part of his Excellency.
Your most obedient servant,
HY. FRED. GIBBONS,
Registrar.
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