No. 15

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 3
of the 20th of December last respecting a claim preferred by the Chief
Justice to a portion of certain Fees taken in the Court of Bankruptcy in
Vancouver Island.

The 13th Clause of the Act of 1862 provides that the Account to
which the Fees are paid shall be chargeable with the Salaries of the
Officers and other expenses of the Court, and that such Salaries shall
be fixed by the Governor, and it is further provided that no payments
shall be made from the General Revenue on account of the Salaries of the
Commissioner or of those of any of the Officers of the Court.

The inference I draw from these concluding words of the Clause is,
that the Chief Justice is not to derive any emolument from those fees,
and, consequently, the Governor never apportioned from that source any
Salary to the Chief Justice.

But, as observed by the Colonial Secretary and the Attorney General,
the subsequent Act of 1861, passed with the Chief Justice was not in
receipt of Fees, and it may be presumed on the understanding that he was
not to receive them, gave him a Salary of £12000 a year, evidently, I
apprehend, in full of all claims on the Public.

For these reasons I have to request that you will inform Mr.
Needham that it is not in my power to admit the validity of the claim he
has preferred.