Reference to the incident alluded to in paragraph 5 of my letter of 20th March, I venture to say that in no Legislative Assembly in which respect is paid to the rules of debates and to the courtesy due to the Bench would such a discussion as took place then, on a proposal made by the Chief Justice, have been allowed.
I regret to say that there have been occasions since then on which I have had to complain of proceedings in Council in which proper regard for the position of the Chief Justice has not been shown.
I now draw the special attention of the Secretary of State to the attitude of the Government in this matter. The Ordinance authorises the Chief Justice to make changes in the vacations of the Court. I acted under the Ordinance in circumstances which seemed to me to demand the action I took, and communicated the Rule of Court to the Government.
The Government apparently having no opinion on the matter referred the question to the Chamber of Commerce. I received no communication from the Government, but the hostile attitude taken up by the Chairman of the Chamber was made public by the resolution, which was unfair in its statement of the case; it was improperly and inaccurately drawn; it contained an exaggerated and untrue statement of the attitude of the profession; the Chairman had most improperly stirred up some of the profession against the Chief Justice; and when they, realising what they had done, withdrew their opposition, the Chairman of the Chamber persisted in his attitude.
The arguments against the change, in so far as they were not puerile, were met by the subsequent action I took in the matter; yet in spite of these well-known facts, and in spite of the further fact that I had put the matter into abeyance, His Excellency's letter written on 22nd February was held over in order to obtain the further views of the Chamber, and a fortnight later was sent to me with a post-script, although the whole circumstances had changed; and this was the only communication I received from the Government on the subject.
I submit in the first place that official courtesy...
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