CO129-347 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [4-6] — Page 33

observe here that the leading member of the local Bar

Honourable Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C.

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to whose views I

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believe the Chief Justice attaches great weight, observed

to me that he saw no objection to the First Magistrate

sitting as an Appeal Judge, a proposition which the Chief

Justice in his attached letter describes as so "grotesque"

that he had hardly given credence to its proposal by Mr.

T. Sercombe Smith.

7.

The second main issue is whether

the work of the Courts is at present so heavy as to

necessitate the appointment of a Third Judge apart from

the question of the Appeal Court. On this question I find

opinion somewhat divided. The view apparently taken by my

predecessor, and strongly held by Mr. Sercombe Smith who

had acted for 3 and a half years as Puiane Judge, was that

no necessity whatever existed on the ground of excessive

work, and that by a rearrangement of work between the

Chief Justice and the Puisne Judge, and perhaps by sitting

for longer hours (I am informed that the usual hours are

from 11 to 4 with an hour's interval) the Chief Justice

could without difficulty arrange for all the work. Mr. Wise

has always expressed the view that a Third Judge was not

at present necessary, but as Your Lordship will observe

from

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