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576
various consultations with Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and
Master their Solicitors, and at one of these consultations
the question of adopting the Rider-main system as set
forth in Mr. Osbert Chadwick's Preliminary Report dated
the 10th day of April 1902 and which was published in
the Hongkong Government Gazette of the 11th of the same
month was first broached by the Solicitors and brought
to my notice by them as being a highly practical one for
the achievement of the main object of the Bill and at the
same time avoiding the infliction of much hardship and
inconvenience on the Chinese.
On further discussion with the Solicitors and after
careful consideration and inquiry, I became as much
convinced as the Solicitors that the Rider-main system
was the only successful means of grappling with the difficulties of the situation. The Petition was according
-ly drafted by the Solicitors on that line and my work in connection therewith was simply to consult with them in my capacity as a Barrister-at-law and to settle their
I wish it to be distinctly understood that before the Solicitors suggested the Rider-main system to me for my consideration, I had never for a moment thought of this system as a possible means of solving the difficul-
-ties.
draft.
The acceptance of a fee for the services rendered by me in my professional capacity after the Bill had already been passed by the Council, cannot, I submit, be taken to be within the sense and meaning of the passages in May's Parliamentary Practice to which my attention has been directed and to which I shall have occasion to refer again
hereunder.
In view of the explanations I have set forth above, every particular of which can be substantiated by the testimony of Messrs. Wei A Yuk, Fung Wa Chun and G. C. C. Master (any one of whom His Excellency can at any time
(4)