Des Voeux when he left the Colony, consented, much against my desire, to act as Colonial Secretary, a post I filled till March 1892.
In June 1891 Sir James Russell, the Chief Justice, went home on leave and, as my services were required in the Colonial Secretary's Office, Mr. Francis Henry May was appointed Acting Chief Justice.
Early in 1892, while I was still acting as Colonial Secretary, Sir James Russell again applied for leave and, in his application, proposed that Sir Fielding Clarke, the then Puisne Judge, should act for him.
My protest was overruled by His Excellency. Sir Fielding Clarke, the Chief Justice having now, in 1894, obtained leave, His Excellency has appointed Mr. Ackroyd to act as Chief Justice, though he has kindly expressed to me his feeling that my claim to a Chief Justiceship is, as Attorney General, superior to that of Mr. Ackroyd, especially as I was for nearly four years Chief Justice of another Colony.
I am writing in no spirit of complaint but, as time goes on, another Governor unacquainted with these facts may come to the Colony and my prospects may be prejudiced. I should be glad therefore if the reasons why I have been overlooked on these occasions, firstly in favour of the Registrar of Court, and secondly in favour of the Puisne Judge may be placed on record both at the Colonial Office in England and here in the Colony.
In accepting the Acting Colonial Secretaryship I felt that it...