CO129-603-7 Legal Department- reorganisation 18-2-1948 - 19-10-1949 — Page 28

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officer) warranted acceptance, and, in the latter case, even if a suitable officer were secured, he would necessarily have to devote a good deal of time initially to acquainting himself with the local ordinances and regulations. Moreover, revision which did not also aim at simplification and in some cases substantial changes, would orly partially solve the problem. It would certainly not secure continuity and competent drafting after its completion. I therefore recommend that one of the existing Legal Officers on the time scale should be posted to perform full time duty as legal draftsman. I do not recommend that such a post should become one above the normal time scale but its holder should be able to look for ultimate promotion to the post of Senior Legal Officer which I have proposed in paragraph 7 should ultimately replace that of Crown Solicitor. The post of Senior Legal Officer would continue to be a superscale post, though probably at a salary somewhat lower than that at present drawn by the Crown Solicitor. Naturally the officer to whom is assigned the duties of legal draftsman will be liable to be reassigned to discharge the duties of any other post in the judicial and legal department for which he is considered suitable.

10.

There are at present four posts for Assistant Crown Solicitors, and I recommend that these officers, together with the Crown Counsel and the Magistrates, should in future all be designated simply Legal Officers, to reflect the present practice, which I propose to continue, that these officers should be allocated to whatever department requires their services. I have indicated at "Z" of paragraph 3, and will explain further below, how the duties of those Legal Officers who will correspond to the present Assistant Crown Solicitors will almost wholly fall within the Registrar General's Department. They will remain, however, within the Legal Department and under the direction of the Attorney General in regard to their discipline and allocation of duties.

As to "Z"

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11.

Registrar General's Department. As a conse- quence of my recommendation that the office of Registrar of the Supreme Court be strictly confined to the duties of that appointment, it is necessary that a department be created to discharge all the functions of the miscellaneous registries, i.e., Companies, Trade Marks, Patents and Designs, and those of the Official Receiver, Official Trustee and Official Administrator. I therefore recommend that a department which could be styled the Registrar General's Department be created to discharge these functions, and also those of the Land Office. It is convenient to group the miscellaneous registries with the Land Office, which is largely concerned with the legal side of land registration. In this Colony which, unlike most others, is commercial almost to the exclusion of agriculture and industry, the importance of land for urban development and of company or trade mark registration is enhanced to a degree unknown in colonies where commerce is subordinate to agricul- ture or industry. The proposal for the establishment of such a department would be in line with the tendency in all other dependencies of status similar to Hong Kong.

12.

The departmental staff would be the Registrar General, a permanent and substantive post, and three Assistant Registrars General, who would be supplied from the pool of Legal Officers referred to in paragraph 10 above. The Registrar General would be concerned primarily with all matters of policy and supervision on the several subjects enumerated above. I propose that the salary of the Registrar General should be equivalent to that recommended by the Salaries Commission for the Crown Solicitor, i.e, $2,066.67 a month. This salary together with expatriation pay would produce pensionable emolu- ments at £1,755 a year, as opposed to the pensionable emoluments of the present post of Land Officer which amount to £1,705 a year. post of Land Officer would bemerged in that of the Registrar General, and if the new post is approved, the present Land Officer would most suitably be the first Registrar General.

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