CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 435

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Joined by paragraph 4 of the same Instructions. Mr.Thomson

admits that he was to blame for not having called attention

to the necessity for such an inspection. I consider that he

is also very seriously to blame for not having given to his

sub-accountants in the New Territories instructions of the

nature which it was considered necessary to issue after the

embezzlement by Ip Wai Lan.

9.

I concur in the opinion expressed in Sir

Henry Berkeley's minute of June 13th. that Mr. Ross and Mr.

Orme appear according to the letter of the Financial

Instructions to be responsible for making good the loss.

In holding them equally responsible in spite of the greater

part of the loss having been incurred while Mr. Orme was

Collector at Tai Po, I assume the Attorney General took

into consideration that the frauds were initiated while

this post was held by Mr. Ross who had an experience of

rent collecting in the New Territories which placed him in

a more advantageous position for detecting such frauds than

that of his successor who was new to the work. I am unable

to concur in the reasons given by the Attorney General in

the same minute for it being inequitable to subject the

officers in question to the pecuniary liability imposed

upon them by the letter of the 5th. paragraph of the Finan-

cial Instructions. Though constant daily supervision of the

shroffs

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