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REGISTRY, SUPREME COURT; CROWN SOLICITOR; LAND OFFICE;
AND OFFICIAL RECEIVER.
These four legal departments are taken together because there has always been a certain amount of interchange of officers between them: Deputy Registrars of the Supreme Court have acted as Official Receivers, Land Officers as Crown Solicitors, and Assistant Crown Solicitors as Deputy Registrars, etc. The Commissioners recommend that this principle be adhered to, and that the officers of these four departments should be regarded as transferable from one department to another as the exigencies of the service require. This will be of particular importance where home leave arrangements are concerned. Each of the four departments however does different work, and the Com- missioners are satisfied that there is little, if any, overlapping. A certain amount is unavoidable, for it is difficult, particularly for a non-legal department to say exactly where, for example, the jurisdiction of the Crown Solicitor ends and that of the Land Officer begins.
2. The Registry staff consists of the Registrar, one Deputy Registrar, one European Accountant, three bailiffs and fourteen Asiatic interpreters and clerks. The Supreme Court Ordinance No. 3 of 1873 provides for a Registrar and two Deputies. Formerly there were two Deputies, one of whom performed the duties of accountant. The Com- missioners consider that the present arrangement of one Deputy only and an European accountant, should be continued. There are vacant the posts of one Class III officer of the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff and one Stenographer. These posts should be abolished and the approved establishment correspondingly reduced.
3. The Crown Solicitor has nominally two assistants but as often as not one is seconded to another department. The duties of the Crown Solicitor and his assistant or assistants are wide, for there is not a Government department that does not at some time or other seek his advice. That the work is so well done is largely due to the zeal and long hours of overtime put in by the present holder of the post. There are three Chinese clerks, the same number that there was 10 years ago. The post of Stenographer is at present vacant with the result that much of the typing and correspondence is done by the Crown Solicitor himself.
4. At first glance it would appear that in the Land Office there was occasion for retrenchment. In 1931 the staff of this department consisted of a Land Officer, Assistant Land Officer and five Chinese clerks. In 1931 there are twelve Chinese clerks, a Class II officer of the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff, who is practically an Assistant Land Officer, a Stenographer, Assistant Land Officer and Land Officer. It was pointed out to the Commissioners that up to 1921 there had been no increase in the staff for 25 years. The work of the Land Office consists chiefly in deeds registration and the issue of Crown leases. Though there has been no substantial increase in the former, the number of Crown leases issued has grown to such an extent that in the first half of 1930 more Crown leases were granted than in any single previous year. As in one day a clerk can engross only one or two leases, it can be readily understood why there should have been such an increase in the clerical establishment. Not only does Crown lease have to be engrossed, but before its actual issue there is often considerable correspondence. Cor- respondence generally has increased, notably in the number of C.SO. files that are sent, at times apparently somewhat unnecessarily, to the Land Officer to deal with. It was stated that the Stenographer writes between 2,000 to 3,000 letters per annum.
In addition, the Land Officer was in 1927 made Registrar of Marriages. This work takes the whole time of one clerk; moreover it not infrequently happens that there are cases involving difficult points of matrimonial law. The Commissioners are satisfied that no reductions can safely be made. It is of the utmost importance that the Deeds Register be kept and entered by a responsible officer whilst the issue of Crown Leases is a source of revenue to the Government.
5. The present holder of the substantive post of Official Receiver was appointed in 1927. This was at a time when there was a very large number of bankruptcies; the arrears of which are only just being cleared off. Formerly, the duties of the post were frequently performed by the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The Commissioners re- commend that, when in three years' time, the present holder retires the post should not be filled, but that the duties of it should be performed by the Registrar. In the event of there being an abnormal increase in the number of bankruptcies it would be economical to engage on a temporary basis a solicitor either locally or from home.
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