1222.
MY LORD,
No. 3.
(SOUTH AUSTRALIA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
3
WE were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's
Royal Courts of Justice, 21st January 1884. letter of the 31st ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a copy of a despatch from the Governor of South Australia, with its enclosures, in which the legality of affixing the Governor's signature to formal documents by means of a stamp was discussed.
That Mr. Wingfield was to request that we would take those papers into our con- sideration, and inform your Lordship whether, in our opinion, the use of a stamp instead of a written signature constituted a legal and sufficient execution of grants, leases, and other instruments and documente which were to be signed by the Governor or issued under his hand.
That it appeared to your Lordship that the use of a stamp might leave room for doubt whether a writing so executed had ever come under the hand of the Governor, and that the practice was in any case an undesirable one as giving increased facilities for fraud.
That your Lordship would therefore be obliged by any observations which might occur to us on the points raised by that despatch.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That, in our opinion, the personal affixing of a name by means of a stamp amounts to a legal signature, unless there be a statutory direction as to the particular manner in which the signature is to be effected.
At the same time it appears to us that the practice is very objectionable. A forgery could scarcely ever be detected, and the facility of effecting it affords much temptation to those likely to commit the fraud.
The only advantage to be derived from the practice is some slight personal relief to the Governor, a result scarcely sufficient to counterbalance the manifest disadvantages likely to occur if the system be pursued.
HENRY JAMES.
We have, &c., (Signed)
The Right Hon. the Earl of Derby,
&c.
&c.
&c.
FARRER HERSCHELL.
A
15927.-64. 85.-12/85.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
سيا
Reference :-
C.O.885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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