Your letter of the 22nd ult., has been submitted to the Board, and I am instructed to inform you in reply that the Directors cannot see how any fees can possibly be due to you as Sir Julius Vogel stated at the Meeting of 1883, with the Directors' concurrence, that the Directors would—it really was, were—drawing no fees while the Company was not paying a dividend.

This in connection with what passed at the Meeting in July last, must, my Directors consider, convince you that no fees are due to you.