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25
(18)
54174/6/47
(vi)
(vii)
THE LAND OFFICER'S DEPARTMENT:
The Land Officer.
(This officer also discharges the functions of Registrar of Marriages, and is usually assisted by one Assistant Crown Solicitor, who discharges the duties of Deputy Registrar of Marriages).
THE ESTATE DUTY OFFICE:
The Estate Duty Commissioner is usually a
Cadet Officer or an Assistant Crown Solicitor, (depending on which is available).
There is an authorised establishment of six Assistant Crown Solicitors who may be called upon to act as Magistrates or upon whom may devolve some of the functions of the Registrar of the Supreme Court or the Land Officer as noted above. In paragraph 4 of my staff despatch No. 52
of 2nd April, 1947, the possibility of dispensing with one of these posts during the course of the next few years was mentioned, but such a reduction is out of the question at present, and I am of the opinion that there are ample grounds for the retention of this post on a per- manent basis.
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While it would not be true to say that in practice this multiplicity of self-contained departments produces difficulty or con- fusion in the minds of the public, difficulties and confusion do arise
It is considered in the departmental and inter-departmental sphere. therefore that a reorganisation is required which would bring the structure of the legal departments into lire, at least progressively, with the more precise and logical structure existing in other depen- dences of an equivalent status. Towards this end it is proposed that there should be, instead of the existing seven, three departments only,
a Judicial Department, a Legal Department and a Registrar General's Department. The Judicial Department would comprise the Supreme Court and the Magistracies; the Legal Department would absorb the Attorney General's and the Crown Solicitor's Departments; and the Registrar General's Department would absorb the Land Officer and the miscellaneous registries including those attached now to the Supreme Court, other than the Registry of the Supreme Court itself. The organisation of the three departments might then be illustrated as follows:
(x)
THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT:
The Chief Justice;
Two Puisne Judges;
The Registrar of the Supreme Court;
Six Legal Officers (to sit as Magistrates).
(x)
THE LEGAL: DEPARTMʼNT:
The Attomey
tomey General
(to
The Solicitor General
4 Legal Officers perform duties as Crown
Counsel)
c. (2
4 Legal Officers (to perform duties at present
carried out by Assistant Crown Solicitors).
The Crown Solicitor 1 Legal Officer (to perfom duties of legal draftsman).