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When I came to the Colony I found the Supreme Court in a state of most lamentable inertness and far below its proper standard of efficiency as the Supreme Court of so important a Colony: laissez faire and laissez aller seemed to be the chief features of the administration of justice. I set myself to put matters on a better footing, and in many things where the Judges were alone concerned I have been able to effect considerable reform. In one matter in which the existing state of things was deplorable, the absence of any system of Reporting, I was successful in obtaining the assistance of the Government; but in every other question, great or small, I have met with steady and continuous refusal of assistance.
The Registry was specially inefficient; one of the main causes being the perpetual shifting of officers and the complete ignoring of the Chief Justice in connexion with the changes made in the office; it was rapidly becoming a mere adjunct of the Colonial Secretary's Department. Mr. Seth was the chief though not the only person to complain, and his complaints extended over the whole time he was in the office before I took action, and formed the subject of many conversations with him, the general purport of which, together with the exact expressions used by him, have already been given in previous letters. My amazement at the course...
statement formally on record:-