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and contrary to expectation lasted 4 days. It could not be ad- -journed as the ships were ready to sail, and the evidence of the crews was necessary. The Chamber work of fuesday had to be postponed till Friday: and an important public examination of a
debtor fixed for the Tursday had to be adjourned till friday
afternoon. Fortunately no case had been fixed for the Friday
or we should have been in a state of great confusion. Postpone- -ments of this kind mean trouble, delay and often expense to all parties who have already made their arrangements according to
the dates originally fixed.
9.
The second personal matter which renders my work irksome is the absence of a personal clerk who shall be independent of the Registry and within call. I have already laid this matter before Your Excellency, and will therefore only add this to what I have already said. If I had such a clerk in the room adjoining mine 1 should be saved from the frequent inter- -ruptions to which I am subject all day long. I may say that I rarely get a quiet balf-hour in which to write a Judgment: and by way of further illustration, I will add that while I have been drafting this letter I have been interrupted 12 or 15 times.
10.
X
In the last paragraph of the letter under
reply Your Excellency was good enough to say that should i so desire Your Excellency would forward a copy of my letter to the Karl of Sigin. 1 should be glad if Your Excellency would do so. 1 enclose a tabular statement showing the
growth of the business of the Court. From this it will be seen that it has been steadily increasing since 1901. Last year was exceptionally heavy. This year the number of actions will pro-
-bably be about the same as in 1904.
11.
1 bave eto.. (sd.) F. T. Piggott,
Chief Justice.