CO129-390 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1912 [5-6] — Page 387

to IV.

375

in at least two cases corrections in the body of the Volume had been made by the insertion of printed slips containing in one case a whole Ordinance without any page number appearing on the slips and without any reference being made to them in the index prefixed to the Volume; that in these circumstances I could not ask the Legislative Council to approve the Volumes until a careful and independent scrutiny of them had been carried out. I stated further that the cost of reprinting all pages on which errors of his own making occurred should be borne by himself.

4.

I subsequently received from Sir Francis the enclosed letters dated 30th. and 31st. May and 1st. and 4th. June. These letters were considered by the Executive Council on the last named date when the Council decided that until the Volumes had been scrutinized, corrected and the pages needing correction re- -printed the Government could not accept the Volumes as the law of the Colony; that Sir Francis's claim to a copyright in the Volumes could not be recognised by the Government but that if he would withdraw that claim and any claim to further remuneration the Government would be prepared to pay to him the balance which he claimed to be due namely 24,666.67 and bear the whole cost of scrutiny and reprinting. To this letter I received the enclosed reply dated 6th. June. The matter was then further considered by the Executive Council at a meeting held on 13th. June when the Council advised that a settlement of the claims should if possible be made on the terms embodied in the accompanying letter of 18th. June addressed to Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and Master who were acting on behalf of Sir F. T. Piggott. In coming to this decia- -ion the Executive Council were actuated by a desire to terminate entirely Sir F. T.Piggott's connection with and interest in the new edition and at the same time to avoid the public scandal which would be created if the question of Sir F. T. Piggott's remunera- -tion were contested in a Court of Law.

5.

On 18th. June the terms offered were accepted

by Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and Master on behalf of their client and were subsequently embodied in the enclosed agreement which was