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not been for the extremely difficult financial conditions
which have prevailed during the past 12 months the Company
might well have prospered in business and met its obligations
to the Government.
With regard to my failure to notice that certain
sums had not been paid in in respect of sales conducted by the Auctioneering and Brokering Co. I desire to point out
that I frequently, almost daily, inquired of the First
Bailiff as to how the money was coming in with regard to
these sales and I invariably received from Mr. Hill the
assurance that payment was being made with regularity.
Examination of the "Record of Sales Book" was made
by me at frequent intervals and the entries under the
heading of "Net proceeds" were always filled in. This I
took to be an indication that those proceeds had been
received.
It will be noticed that both Mr. Nisbet and the
Acting First Bailiff (Mr. O'Sullivan) agree that no entry should be made under this heading unless the proceeds of
sale have been received.
I do not wish to allege that Mr. Hill made these
entries with the deliberate intention of misleading me as
to payment but the effect of the entries being so made was to mislead me as to payment.
It is to my mind clear on the evidence given by Mr.
Hill that he was fully conversant of the fact that payments
were not being made with due regularity, for he admits that
as early as March or April 1926 he himself was lending the
Company substantial sums of money to enable them to meet
their