CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 434

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the first two of these gentlemen for any reasons they might

have to urge why they should not make good the loss result-

ing from this neglect. Mr. Ross was on leave in England so

I left the question of his responsibility to be dealt with

later. I annex copies of Mr. Thomson's statement dated the

14th. May and Mr. Orme's dated the 6th. June.

7.

I then caused these statements, the Local

Auditor's report and a precis of the facts of the case as

embodied in paragraphs 2 to 4 of this despacth to be re-

ferred to the Attorney General for his opinion as to the

extent and incidence of the responsibility to make good the

loss. I annex copies of two minutes dated June 13th, and

June 21st. by Sir Henry Berkeley giving his opinion.

8.

I have carefully considered the various

documents referred to above and I concur in Sir Henry

Berkeley's opinion embodied in his earlier minute that

there is no Financial Instruction under which the Treasurer

can be made pecuniarily responsible. I consider however

that the loss that has been incurred is mainly due to his

not having exercised that strict supervision over the

officers entrusted with the receipt of moneys in the New

Territories which was his duty under paragraph 3(v) of the

Financial Instructions and to his not having conducted any

surprise inspection of the accounts there such as is en-

joined