}
COPY.
193
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
I had been convinced for sometime past
that as the Criminal Sessions are held monthly in the interest of the public much time would be saved if both of the Judges sat to try prisoners and if possible de die in diem until the list was finished, and when I took over the duties of Acting Chief Justice last autumn I determined during my tenure of
office, with the full concurrence of Mr. Justice Compertz, to adopt this course if counsel was available to prosecute for the Crown in the second Court.
The system was most successful one of the Junior Counsel, geneally Mr. Alabaster, being good enough to prosecute for the Attorney-General without a fee in the second Court. The offect was to ensure the termination of the Session within certainly half the usual time much to the advantage of the jurors and the witnesses in the casos who were freed: from attendance in much less time.
On the return of Sir Francis Piggott to the Bench he immediately acquiesced in the now system and it is still in vogue and there is only one impediment I think, and that I submit a small one, to its becoming permanent. Hitherto one of the Junior Counsel, generally as I have said Mr. Alabaster, has conducted some of the smaller prosecutions before the Puisne Judge which has left the Attorney-General free to do the more important cases before the Chief Justice but it is obviously unfair to expect Counsel to carry on this system without any fee. The rate of fecs payable at home to Counsel on the smaller prosecutions at Assizes is not high and ranges from two guineas a case and I venture to suggest that a fee of $25 for conducting a prosecution at the Sessions here would satisfy Counsel that his services were not entirely unrewarded and would having regard to what I have stated be a small expenditure fully justified in the public interest.
I have reason to know that the new system meets not only with the approval of the jurors, who are
absolutely