CO129-347 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [4-6] — Page 458

OPY.

455

*noxgno!! Juod erisxquë

-Beiranand not biswxot of wonort erit awad I

arið „aðnerusoh tacito sit dilw made to graJarosƐ siit of note

*BATTOO MÁJ vd beatar anoituoup sit to Jasmecaja znłynaqmoo0.

bit of brager ditiw Tisswu bns vonaiisori wo" neewjed sonsbroq-

.Jneruisvoð snið alv a aly soldaut teino end to moitieon

1-oja svad I

„trongl¶~ .1 (.62)

"oltant Isido

Tono Inert i

•X‚b ̃zqnI xoktober si

-

The question which is submitted for the

decision of the Secretary of State is:- What is the position of the Registrar of the Supreme Court to the Chief Justice, and of the Chief Justice to the Government in connexion with the officers of the Registry. I had for a long time been dis- -satisfied with the method which the Government had adopted of making changes among the Senior Officers in the Registry without consulting me. On more than one occasion I had found the officer who attends me in Chambers suddenly changed without any reference to me; and on one occasion one of the Deputy Registrars Mr. Kemp !m was taken away without my knowledge for three weeks to do some work for the then Governor, Sir M. Nathan. The subject had been frequently discussed between Mr. Seth and myself, and he informed me that he had often complained but without effect. The Registry semed to me to be gradually be- -coming a mere adjunct of the Colonial Secretary's Office; the Colonial Secretary was moreover understood in the Registry to be of the opinion that the office was overmanned; I therefore decided that, a fitting occasion arising, I should raise the general question referred to above.

In February of this year some further changes in the Registry were in contemplation, and Mr. Seth shewed me a minute he had written on the subject; he complained very much as to the difficulties he experienced in getting the Colonial Secretary to appreciate the true position of affairs in the Registry. I was not very pleased with the tone of the minute which he had written, and I told him that I should now write to the Governor and see if I could not get the whols question put straight, especially in the matter of the Chief Justice being consulted in connexion with contemplated changes. I thereupon wrote to His Excellency the Governor the letter of 29th. February.

gnodanok to Montevod

His Excellency informed me that the Registrar was an independent Head of Department: that the Colonial Secretary submitted such recommendations as he thought

mont