CO129-508-5 Supreme Court of Hong Kong- slackness of registry accounting methods 28-10-1927 - 23-4-1928 — Page 170

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Copy.

Enclosure No. 7.

REGISTRY, SUPREME COURT,

HONG KONG, 14th January, 1927.

170

Sir,

I have the honour to submit the following remarks upon the report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by His Excellency the Governor to investigate the administ- ration and accounts generally of the Supreme Court.

In so far as I was responsible for the employment of the Auctioneering and Brokering Co., Ltd. during the material period I desire to emphasize that the factors which led to their employment were that Messrs. Hughes and Hough no longer had a European conducting their sales, which is in my opinion highly desirable, that the number of reputable auctioneers available for employment was

exceedingly small and that to the best of my knowledge

and belief the financial position of the Company was sound.

I had no reason at that time to distrust Mr. Hill,

the First Bailiff, or to suspect that he had (as seems to

have been the case) any financial interest in the Company,

and I believed that his opinion of the stability of local

concerns, based on the knowledge which he would acquire

in his official capacity, could be relied upon.

It was to the best of my knowledge the opinion of

the majority of the solicitors that the Company was

obtaining better prices on its sales than other auctioneers

in the Colony.

Prior to the commencement of the investigation in

August 1926 I was not aware of anything which might have

led me to believe that the Company was in financial

difficulties, and it appears to me probable that had it

not

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