Enclosure No.4.
FURTHER REPORT ON THE DEFICIENCY OF COURT SALES.
37
As previously reported, Mr. Hill, the First
Beiliff, has for many years been in charge of all Court
sales and it has been his duty to supervise the auctions
and to see that the proceeds of sales were paid into
Court promptly. Mr. Melbourne has signed the orders for
scle, subsequently checked Mr. Hill's account Sales Book
and endorsed the auctioneer's cheques. On investigation
it has now been found that Mr. Hill entered in his
Account Sales Book meny sums as having been paid into
Court which had not been so paid. Both Mr. Melbourne and
myself unfortunately failed to notice this fact, as
the book appeared to be in order.
I am afraid that it is now certain that Mr.Hill
was financially interested in the auctioneering company,
as he lent it money to commerce business, and that he
connived at the retention by the auctioneers of the
proceeds of sale concealing it by false entries in his
bock. I do not think that he had any of the money
himself. He has been in a position of great responsibility for many years, and previous to the employment of the Auctioneering and Brokering Company Limited, has carried
out his duties to the complete satisfaction of Mr. Melbourne
and myself. He has been in an extremely bad state of health since the 21st August last and I have been unable to obtain any satisfactory statement from him as to the cause of the present state of affairs. After the 21st August last I had several interviews with L. . S. Hodge, Managing Director, and Wong Fung Sek, Director and Compradore of the Auctioneering and Brokering Company, Limited. They both assured me that all monies outstanding
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