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Legal Service, or by qualified lawyers, temporarily appointed, and it is not proposed to discontinue this system. It is preferable that the magisterial bench should come within the purview of the Judicial Department, and that those Legal Officers who are posted for duty as magistrates should be responsible to the Chief Justice, as head of that Department, so far as their judicial work is concerned. In this event it is not considered that there is a justification for a new post of Senior Magistrate the creation of which was recommended by the Salaries Commission in paragraph 141 of its Report. The establish- ment of magistrates is five, but one additional post is necessary to provide for leave replacement. These officers would also be available for relief primarily in the Registrar General's department but also in the Legal Department if required. No increase in the establishment is involved, as it will be convenient to substitute the additional post of Magistrate for one post of Assistant Crown Solicitor.
7.
As to "y" Legal Department. The present establishment provides for a Solicitor General and five Crown Counsel although, in fact, there have never been more than three Crown Counsel available since the restoration of Civil Government. The office of Crow Solicitor has in theory not been directly subordinate to the Attomey General, though for many purposes it now works in close union with the Attomey General's Department, sharing the same clerical staff and the same building. It is clear that, in principle, it is preferable to have one department and one departmetal organisation responsible for all advisory work to the Government, legislation, legal draftsman- ship, prosecutions and civil litigation involving the Government before the courts, and advisory work in relatim to investigation and prose- cution of crime. It is therefore recommended that the union which has in practice been achieved between the Departments of the Attomey General and the Crown Solicitor should be officially confirmed and that the Crown Solicitor should become an officer in the Legal Department. When this most is vacated by the present holder I pronose, in consonance with the standardization of nomenclature dealt with in paragraph 10 below, that it should be redesignated Senior Legal Officer.
8.
It is considered that the necessity for retaining four posts of Crown Counsel has been amply proved during the past two years, for whenever by reason of leave or of necessity for the making of an acting appointment as Solicitor General, Crown Counsel have been reduced to two, it has sooner or later been necessary to obtain the assistance of an Assistant Crown Solicitor. One reason for this is that two Crown Counsel are fully employed in prosecuting in criminal sessions or in preparing their cases for the se sessions, and therefore rarely available for consultation by the Police. Such consultation is not only essential for the successful presentation of cases before magistrates but is of general assistance to the Police in the discharge of their duties in maintaining law and order. Crown Counsel moreover require opportunities to obtain experience in drafting and general advisory work to fit them for appointment as senior law officers. the number of Crown Counsel available persistently remains only sufficient for prosecution work, such other experience cannot be gained, nor can Crown Counsel periodically be afforded, as they should be, relief by a change of duties from the strain and monotony of continual court work.
If
9.
A revision of the laws of the Colony is very necessary and has been agreed upon in principle, but, in view of the quantity of legislation more urgently required, it looks as if it is not going to be possible for whole time attention to such work with available staff. To attempt to secure an officer from abroad for this specific purpose would have the disadvantage that such an officer would either
In the former be too senior or have little knowledge of the local law. case, I doubt whether it would be possible to offer sich an officer sufficiently tempting terms even if health (in the case of a retired