Enclosure 2.
309
Court the statement of which I enclose a copy.
The hearing of the action was begun on the
6.
18th December, 1916, and was concluded on the 28th January, 1918, the Court having actually sat on 131 days. Judgment. was finally given for the defendants on the 14th May, but the question of costs still remains to be argued. In the meantime the Criminal proceedings were adjourned from time to time, the defendants being admitted to bail, but they have now been withdrawn in view of the Judgment of the Supreme Court.
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I regret to have to report that the Govern- ment have thus become liable to pay a large sum in costs. The amount of this liability is at present uncertain. The total sum already paid by the Government on account of the Official Receiver's costs amounts to 844,357.
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723
In justification of the action I have taken in this matter I would emphasize the following points:-
(a).
(b).
(c).
It was not foreseen, nor could it have been fore- seen, that the Civil action would develop into the unprecedented length it has assumed.
The shareholders on whose behalf the Official Receiver was acting had appealed to British just- ice for a decision between themselves and the defendants. British justice had cost them $125,000 leaving them as far from the decision asked for as ever. If then the Government had not inter- vened the action would have been dismissed with- out any decision being given and the plaintiff would have had to pay the costs of the other side as well as his own. Such a termination did not seem to me likely to redound to the credit of the administration of Justice in this Colony.
The original intention of the Government was to proceed at once with the Criminal proceedings as
these
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