CO129-508-5 Supreme Court of Hong Kong- slackness of registry accounting methods 28-10-1927 - 23-4-1928 — Page 171

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not been for the extremely difficult financial conditions

which have prevailed during the past 12 months the Company

might well have prospered in business and met its obligations

to the Government.

With regard to my failure to notice that certain

sums had not been paid in in respect of sales conducted by the Auctioneering and Brokering Co. I desire to point out

that I frequently, almost daily, inquired of the First

Bailiff as to how the money was coming in with regard to

these sales and I invariably received from Mr. Hill the

assurance that payment was being made with regularity.

Examination of the "Record of Sales Book" was made

by me at frequent intervals and the entries under the

heading of "Net proceeds" were always filled in. This I

took to be an indication that those proceeds had been

received.

It will be noticed that both Mr. Nisbet and the

Acting First Bailiff (Mr. O'Sullivan) agree that no entry should be made under this heading unless the proceeds of

sale have been received.

I do not wish to allege that Mr. Hill made these

entries with the deliberate intention of misleading me as

to payment but the effect of the entries being so made was to mislead me as to payment.

It is to my mind clear on the evidence given by Mr.

Hill that he was fully conversant of the fact that payments

were not being made with due regularity, for he admits that

as early as March or April 1926 he himself was lending the

Company substantial sums of money to enable them to meet

their