جاج
115
2.
posts should be abolished and the approved establishment
correspondingly reduced.
The
3. The Crown Solicitor has nominally two assistants but
as often as not one is seconded to another department.
duties of the Crown Solicitor and his assistant or assistants
are wide, for there is not a Government department that does
not at some time or other seck his advice. That the work
is so well done is largely due to the zeal and long hours
of overtime put in by the present holder of the post.
are three Chinese clerks, the same number that there was
10 years ago. The post of Stenographer is at present vacant
with the result that much of the typing and correspondence
is done by the Crown Solicitor himself.
H.K. Holmes
There
4. At first glance it would appear that in the Land Office
there was occasion for retrenchment. In 1931 the staff of
this department consisted of a Land Officer
Assistant Land
Officer and five Chinese clerks. In 1931 there are twelve
Chinese clerks a Class II officer of the Senior Clerical and
Accounting Staff, who is practically an Assistant Land
Officer, a Stenographer, Assistant Land Officer and Land
Officer. It was pointed out to the Commissioners that up
to 1921 there had been no increase in the staff for 25 years.
The work of the Land Office consists chiefly in deeds
registration and the issue of Crown leases. Though there
has been no substantial increase in the former, the number of
Crown leases issued has grown to such an extent that in the
first half of 1930 more Crown leases were granted than in
any single previous year. As in one day a clerk can engross
only one or two leases, it can be readily understood why
there should have been such an increase in the clerical