403
3
the entire cost of administration, including the Head Quarters staff.
When the time arrives for a distribution of Assets to creditors, lists of the amounts payable are sent by the Trustees to the Head Department, by whom the actual payments are made, out of the aggregate balance held by the Department, instead of, as formerly, being made by the various Trustees out of the separate balances held by them.
To provide for expenses necessarily incurred locally by Trustees, pending the complete realization of Assets, Imprests are made to the Trustees from time to time out of the central fund.
The above description is of course only general and not at all full or complete, but it may suffice as an illustration of the lines upon which the present law in English cases proceeds, so far as relates to finance, and of the means by which the service is conducted without cost to the tax-payer.
Whether a system, adapted to the requirements of Hong Kong, and yet on somewhat similar lines to the one which has been so successful in England, could be introduced into the Colony is a question of administration and as such, one for the consideration of the Secretary of State and the Colonial Authorities, and not of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
At the same time, as he has already intimated, Sir Charles Ryan agrees with what he understands to be the views of the Chief Justice of Hong Kong as expressed in
his