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According to present arrangements and as has been before remarked, besides the appointments formerly held by the Registrar individually, and which are now held by him as Registrar of the Supreme Court, the duties of Registrar of Companies, Appraiser, Sheriff and Bailiff are all to be performed by officers of the Supreme Court and not as hitherto by independent officers and the fees are to be paid into the Treasury. I think that it would have been perhaps better to have left the Registrar to his original duties and to have had two separate officers, one an Adminis- trator General taking the duties of Official Administrator, Official Assignee, Official Liquidator, and Official Trustee, a man conversant with figures and a good business man, the other a Sheriff or Marshal who would be respousible in damages for the neglect or default of his subordinates and would take the superintendence of the duties of the Bailiff, Distrainer and Appraiser as well as the duties of Sheriff, leaving the officers of the Supreme Court to their ordinary duties as such; but as it has been decided that the whole of the work is to be done in the Registry of the Supreme Court under the super- intendence of the Registrar, it only remains to be considered how it is to be carried out, The Registrar has hitherto taken the management of Bankruptcy and Probate matters, the duties of Official Trustee and the general superintendence of the office.
At present
✦ the duties of Deputy Registrar and Accountant are divided, Mr. BARFF taking a part of the work and Mr. HAZELAND taking the remaining portion and dividing the pay $2,160 between them. If the Secretary of State were to fix the salary at $3,360 instead of $2,760, I believe Mr. BABFF would be willing to come permanently as Accountant. His present pay is however $2,880, so that he cannot be expected to give up his present appointment.
The duties of Deputy Registrar and Accountant would be by no means light. Ile would have all the accounts of the Court to keep. At present there are two sets of Books to keep. The Registrar, Official Assignee, and Official Administrator's and the Official Trustee's consisting in each case of Cash Book, Journal, Ledger and monthly balances, but they may be reduced to one set as soon as the office of Official Trustee is amalgamated with that of Registrar. The amount of cash passing through the Cash Book of the Registrar, Official Assignee and Administrator in 1879 amounted to $91,546.01. The Shroff received $8,616.16, and the Balance, remaining in hand at the Bank every month uninvested, averaged nearly $19,479.58 and $94.09 in the
hands of the Shroff.
In 1880 the amount was $212,826.22 and received by the Shroff $13,411.08, the average mouthly balance in the Bank $31,716.79 and in the hands of the Shroff $80.62.
In 1881 the amount was $132,441.02 and received by the Shroff $3,224.23 and the average monthly balance in the Bank $49,832.70 and in the hands of Shroff $87.99.
In 1882 the amount was up to the end of August $160,589.69 and received by the Shroff $1,722.43 and the average monthly balances $61,199.12 and $130.75.
The monthly balances of the Registrar and Official Administrator averaged in 1881 $115.710, and for the first eight months of 1882 $143.938.
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