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the wants and circumstances of the colony, they did not think it necessary to require Solicitors to take out annual certificates, nor did they impose any duty in this respect on the registrar. I did not think it incumbent on me when I arrived in Hong Kong or at any subsequent period to criticise their action or the laws they had passed.
21 I pass on to the 4th Head.
Monies paid to the Registrar as official administrator upon which the Government has levied a percentage of 5% without the estate having ever been administered. And by which means there is now an accumulation of more than $4,000 in respect of which there is no proof of death or letters of administration ever taken out.
22. I take the whole responsibility of this "grave irregularity" upon myself as it is due to my action and initiative that these sums have been received. I admit the facts but far from constituting any irregularity they only show the vigilance of the Registrar as official administrator.
23. Soon after I arrived in the colony it came to my knowledge that in cases of shareholders in Colonial companies resident and dying abroad, the managers of the Company had been in the habit of forwarding the dividends on the shares to the representatives abroad of the deceased, or in some cases, of keeping these sums as unclaimed dividends.
24. The consequence of this action, was that in some cases the representatives of the deceased recovered these dividends without proving the will or taking out letters of administration, Government losing the duty on the estate. This I thought my duty to stop, therefore in virtue of the powers conferred upon me by
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