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in Chambers it seems to me that with two Deputy Registrars on
the establishment of the Court, it should be possible by re-
-arrangement of duties, which it is open to Your Honour to direct,
for both the Chief Justice and Puisne Judge to have all the
clerical assistance they require. I regret that one of the Deputy
Registrars should at the present time be on leave but the
Secretary of State has on various occasions declined to allow an
extra staff being kept up in any Department solely for the pur-
-pose of leave taking.
With regard to the 2nd, and 3rd, points
dealt with in Your Honour's letter, viz.:- that there is no
shorthand writer attached to the Court nor any means by which a
record of the Judgments of the Court is kept, 1 understund that
from a subsequent submission that Your Honour's scheme for sup-
-plying these deficiencies is that an official shorthand writer
should be engaged and that a subsidy sufficient to cover the cost
of printing reports of cases in the Courts should be paid to a
local Barrister who would edit and arrange for their printing
furnishing the Government without charge with the copies they
require. Your Honour is of opinion that the expense of this
scheme would be considerably less than that involved by accept-
-ing the tender of the "South China Morning Post, Limited" to provide a shorthand writer and Law Editor and to print and edit the Law Reports as well as the reports of the meetings of the
Legislative Council and of other meetings of which the Government
may require accurate records, for the sum of $4,500 per annum.
I would point out that in the first
instance the Deputy Registrars by whom or by the Clerks of the Court the records of Judgments have by law to be made should be competent to do any editing of them that may be necessary, taking into account that one of the Deputy Registrars has been,
and