53.
52.
expressed in temperate and respectful language what, if I felt it to be the case, I had a perfect right to deprecate.
3.
That is reading out any correspondence bearing on my decision. I was only doing what the parties to the cause had a right to expect, that the published reports of the proceedings shows that I confined myself strictly within the limits in which quotations were necessary, and that to describe instructions or points of law and procedure conveyed to the Magistrate investigating the case as "departmental correspondence" is altogether a misnomer.
Further, with regards to the facts of the case generally, I have the honour to submit that the Acting Attorney General, in advising the Government of his opinion to direct the Magistrate to alter the course which in his discretion he had adopted, was assuming control over the Magistrate's proceedings which does not belong to his Office.
That the Government, in adopting this opinion and advice and forwarding it to the Magistrate for his information and guidance, took a purely ex parte view of the case and did not even allow the Magistrate the usual option of offering observations, before informing him that his action was irregular.
142