504
No one,
I venture to think, will
dispute the success of the similar system which at present
obtains here, under which Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, partner in a
Firm of local Solicitors, discharges with marked ability
the duties of Crown Solicitor.
5.
The disadvantages of the system
are (a) the imperfect control exercised by Government over
the gentleman, who in one capacity is the servant of
Government and in another is a private and independent
professional man: and (b) the fact that such a system
deprives the Civil Service of one of the higher posts open
to those who have studied law with the necessary corollary
that the abler men in the Service who at present successfully
fill the lesser posts in the legal branch would
find less inducement to adopt that branch, unless with a
view to transfer to another Colony where this system did
not obtain, and the post of Attorney-General was filled
by a Civil Servant. It has been put forward as a further
objection that an Attorney-General who was free to engage
in private practice might find himself hampered in his
dual rôle, and might find his interests and obligations to
his clients and to Government at variance, but I am not
disposed to attach much importance to this point.
6.