No. 38, Separate

1. I have the honor to submit for your consideration the documents
named in the accompanying Schedule having reference to the practice
and accounts of the Probate Court of this Colony.

2. I send these papers entire to enable you to judge more accurately
in a matter where personal as well as official characters, are at
stake; and I would especially direct your attention to the
dates of the various letters and documents.

*

3. You will thus observe that my attention was directed to the
administration of intestate estates shortly after I assumed the
Government in March 1864. The subsequent correspondence will show
that I have vainly endeavoured to bring the inquiry to a conclusion
at an earlier period, and that even now, I am obliged to transmit the
papers without the comments of the Chief Justice on the final Report
of the Board of Inquiry which was submitted to him on the 22nd April
1865, and judging from the delay in replying to former letters may be
indefinitely postponed.

4. Mr Williams had vacated the office of Registrar before I assumed
the Government of the Colony, and was succeeded by Mr Richard Woods
in the Acting appointment.

5. I have been frequently pressed to make the appointment permanent,
but declined to do so pending the conclusion of the inquiry and the
expected appointment of a Chief Justice.

6. I enclose a copy of the Rules of Practice of the Supreme Court of
Vancouver Island from which you will observe that (pages 17, 18, 19)
the Registrar was acting under Rules promulgated by Mr Cameron
himself, and which I apprehend it was his duty to enforce.

**

7. The position taken by His Honor at the commencement of the
accompanying correspondence in withholding, or directing the Acting
Registrar to withhold papers from the Board of Inquiry, I fear
invests him with much of the responsibility of the grave
irregularities which the final Report of the Board discloses.

8. I am at a loss to understand how the systematic disregard and
violation of the plain and proper Rules laid down, from No 131 to
139 at page 17 of the Rules of Practice of the Supreme Court, could
have been overlooked, thus facilitating fraud and embezzlement to an
unknown extent, affecting individuals and Crown interests alike.

9. Macdonald's Bank in which moneys appear to have been lodged by
the Registrar not only without authority, but in direct violation of
the Rules, (136 issued by the Chief Justice himself), was one of
those establishments which are too often found in new countries and
closed after a short career of swindling without any assets whatever
while there were two respectable joint stock Banks in Victoria.

***

10. You will observe from the Report of the Board that Mr Williams
late Registrar left the Colony without closing or handing over his
accounts to anybody, that no personal bond is forthcoming, and that
his successor succeeded to the office of Acting Registrar without
entering into any bonds as such.

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11. You will further observe that the Legislative Assembly called
for Returns on this subject so far back as 25th September 1864 and
that though Mr Cameron's attention has been called to the subject
the Returns have never been supplied, and that the Legislative
Assembly has not repeated the demand.

12. I deemed it my duty to submit the Report of the Board of Inquiry
to the Acting Attorney General (whose Report I enclose)

*****

that you might be in possession of his opinion while considering the
case.

13. I will only add in conclusion that this inquiry has caused me
great pain in prosecuting it, and that I think the Officers composing
the Board have displayed great patience and ability in conducting it.

14. The Report of the Sheriff on the status and solvency of Mr
Williams' sureties accompanies the papers I now transmit.