416
Applications for probate or letters of administration are made either through a solicitor or by the applicant in person. When a personal application is made, the Petition and other papers are drawn up or filled in by the Chinese interpreter or the Deputy Registrar. The applicant is required in his petition to give a list of the property of the deceased and to verify it by oath or solemn affirmation. He is questioned both by the interpreter and the Deputy Registrar, and every care is taken to obtain a correct list of the property and the value thereof.
It must be remembered that there are cases in which it may be necessary to take out probate or letters of administration at once, by persons who have not a very intimate knowledge of the fortune of the deceased or who perhaps know nothing about it. Any mistake or omission on this score in the original probate is easily rectified by reswearing the value of the estate and paying duty accordingly.
8. The papers were then examined by me. If satisfied, I submitted them to the Judge; if not, I required further information. But of all this, no written proof is left behind. As Registrar, I had for several years to lay these papers before Sir G. Phillippe or Sir J. Russell. From the care and attention they paid to these matters, I can safely say that they passed them only if quite satisfied they were in order. And if any grave irregularity, such as that instanced by Mr. Kyshe, had been the rule, these applications would not have been granted by the Judge.
9. There is, as I have said, no law, rule of Court, or regulation in Hong Kong which authorised me to do more than this.