CO129-508-5 Supreme Court of Hong Kong- slackness of registry accounting methods 28-10-1927 - 23-4-1928 — Page 72

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in extenuation of this failure.

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Mr. Melbourne in looking to Mr. Hill to ensure prompt payment was relying on the due performance of his duties by an officer who has been twenty six years in the service of the Government and who has held the appointment of First Bailiff for ten years. Both Mr. Melbourne and Mr. Nisbet looked on Mr. Hill as a trustworthy and experienced officer, but he failed to direct their attention to a matter which was his particular concern.

Mr. Melbourne, as Deputy Registrar, has to perform multifarious duties which fully occupy his time and which do not afford him leisure properly to supervise the accounts.

The period material to this enquiry has been one

of great pressure on the staff of the Supreme Court. To illustrate this it is sufficient to quote only the numbers of Summary Jurisdiction Actions and Distraints and payments into and out of the Treasury.

These were:-

Summary Jurisdiction Action in 1923.

..3171.

W

* 1926 up to

November 10th

2648

Distraints, 1925.

.1644.

1926 up to 10th November

..

.1471.

Payments into Treasury, 1925.

.3737.

1926 to 10th November...

,,3962.

3578

Payments out of Treasury, 1925......

1926 to 10th November...3929.

When it is realised that every one of the se matters has to come before Mr. Melbourne (frequently to come before him several times) and that he is subjected to incessant interruptions by persons attending to make affidavits and by Solicitors enquiring as to matters which are before the Court it must be conceded that he had little time for supervision of the Registry accounts and that he might well

overlook