CO129-356 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1909 [4-6] — Page 516

-ing appears:-

502

2.

Among their proposals the follow-

"We strongly recommend that the salary of

"the Attorney-General be reduced from £1,500 to £1,000 per

*annum, and that the Officer be allowed the privilege of "private practice. Up to the date of Mr. W. Meigh (now Sir "William) Goodman's appointment private practice was allow-"ed to the Attorney-General and since that date Barristers "in private practice have acted for long periods as "Attorneys-General with conspicuous success. We urge the "change not only on the score of economy but in the "interests of efficiency. We hold that competition in "private practice sharpens the wits of the Attorney-"General and keeps him up to date in law and practice. We "would point to the successes which attended the system of "allowing private practice in former years, and during the

H. E. "tenure of the office of Attorney-General by both Mr. "Pollock, K.C., and Mr. B. H. Sharp, K.C., Members of the "local Bar, as justifying our conviction that the interests "of Government would not suffer by reversion to the former

"practice."

3.

There appear to be two alternative

and different systems involved in this recommendation. Sir

William Goodman and his predecessors were members of the

Colonial Civil Service, and on their retirement were

entitled to pension. Mr. Pollock and Mr. Sharp were local

Barristers who while discharging the duties of the Attor-

-ney-General continued the practice at the Bar which they

had acquired prior to their appointments as Acting Attor-

-ney-General.