PRINCIPAL LAW OFFICER.

i • ' REPLACES SOLICITOR GENERAL i MR. A. FAIR APPOINTED. :I'.y Telegraph.— Press Association.'WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Attorney-General. Sir Francis Dell, stated to-day. that it is not thought ] advisable for various reasons at. the preisent time to till the office of SolicitorIGeneral rendered vacant by the appoiutjment of .Mr. W. C. MacGregor to the : Supreme Court bench. | Sir Francis liell added that the Public | Service Commissioner had approved the creation of tlie office of principal law j ..Oicer. and Mr. Arthur Pair, one of the Crown solicitors employed in the Crown Law Ofliee, would be advanced to that | position. The office vacated by Mr. Fair I would be filled by the Puh.io Service! Commissioner, according to his discretion. Messrs. K. Y. Kedward and .1. LPrendeville would retain their present 'positions in the Crown Law Ofliee. , Mr. Fair will conduct the orclinary I business of the Government in the (Courts in addition to his duties as officer of the Crown Law Department. In im- | portant litigation affecting the Crown, ! the services of outside counsel may be j engaged, the Crown having always the right to prior service of King's counsel. All discretions conferred by statute on the Attorney-General, and usually 'exercised by the Solicitor-General under i the statute which enables that procedure, will be exercised by the AttorneyGeneral. Sir Francis Bell explained that tbc | object of the new arrangement regardling the Crown Law Office was to ensure | that the staff of that office would have ithe opportunity of promotion. I ! Various interpretations of the new j appointment are made locally. Some of ] the legal fraternity suggest that on the I score of economy no Solicitor-General has been appointed. Another suggestion |is that it will allow of the Department ! distributing Government court work I among members of the legal fraternity. There is the fact, too. that the SolicitorI General's position may l.c regarded as la stepping-stone to a judgeship from the j fact that two recent appointments were I made thus. Such a precedent is followed .at Home, but the two gentlemen in I point in New Zealand would without I doubt have received their promotion on | merit alone.