PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL
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sitting for criminal or for civil cases, by ensuring that, as far as possible (as is now being done) the same three judges sit to try such cases. For that reason the Chief Justice did not, for himself, see any immediate necessity for the appointment either of an Appeal Judge or of an entirely separate Court of Appeal.
The above were the considerations which the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, Norman- Walker and I had in mind when deeming the appointment of Appeal Judge unnecessary at the present time: and it was for these reasons that the Full Court (Amendment) Bill was, on consideration, amended in Committee after Oswald Cheung's original initiative.
If, at the appropriate time, we do
proceed with the appointment of an Appeal Judge or judges, the question of continuing the post of Senior Puisne Judge will be raised, and the Chief Justice's present thinking is that he will be inclined, at that time, to recommend the abolition of the post of Senior Puisne Judge.
To turn to the other more immediate question you raise, the appointment of the Senior Puisne Judge, you have asked for an assessment of the most Senior Supreme Court Judges, other than Scholes (whom I have recommended). The Chief Justice has provided me with an assessment, and I think I can do no better than quote what he has said:-
a good
"Blair-Kerr, W.A. A competent, conscientious and hard-working judge; legal brain and a capacity for getting through a great deal of work. He has past administra- tive experience having been both Registrar
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