Major Bunbury was then requested to state whether he wished to say anything more, or to call any evidence. He first recalled Captains Petit and Fothergill, and asked them whether they did not think the giving of gardens to the soldiers injurious to military discipline and to their drill and proper appearance as soldiers; they said, “Certainly not.” He next asked them whether the soldiers did not sell their gardens to their successors. They answered that they sold their crops, which they themselves had grown and laboured for, but not their gardens. He then called in one or two of his own sergeants, but the only thing he could get out of them was that the soldiers of the 80th Regiment had paid the soldiers of the 50th for the gardens, and therefore considered them their private property. Major Bunbury declined to call in any of his own officers. After some further debate the proceedings were closed. Here we were all ordered to withdraw, and the court was closed for the recording of its final opinion.
I was not then allowed to know what that was, but from the clear and most satisfactory evidence which had been given on my behalf there could only be one opinion on the subject, and it was certainly a most gratifying victory. A few days more confirmed this view of the case. I therefore went to the general and said that I had waited patiently, expecting he would publicly promulgate the opinion of the court of inquiry, but to my surprise he said he saw no necessity for doing so. I told him this did not at all satisfy me, that I felt I had a right to request he would promulgate the opinion of the court, but all my endeavours to this effect failed. I then asked him if I was at liberty to proclaim the substance of my present interview with him. He said, “Most certainly,” and on the same day I took care to do so. From that day I had no further intercourse with Major Bunbury.
Many months afterwards, while in India, I received an official notification from the major of brigade in Sydney that the Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards had approved of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, and had directed the major-general commanding in Sydney to convey a severe reprimand to Major Bunbury, and to inform him that “if he attempted again to insinuate any such charges against Major Anderson he would be brought before a general court-martial.”