JUDGES AND EXTRA FEES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 112, 3 July 1911, Page 8

JUDGES AND EXTRA FEES.

THE BRITISH PRACTICE. STATEMENT BY SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. In view of the 1 controversy over the Government’s payment to Sir Robert Stout of several thousand pounds over and above his official salary for extra official work, a member of the Bar in Wellington took steps to obtain an unquestionable opinion upon tire British practice. He accordingly wrote a letter of inquiry to Sir Frederick Pollock, P.C., the eminent jurist, and he has received the following reply, dated May 19th 1911, from the office of the “Law Quarterly Review” : “Dear Sir, —In reply to your letter of March 31st, Sir Frederick Pollock asks me to say that ho does not know of- any case of a Judge of the English High Court being paid specially for extra-official work performed by him. Royal Commissioners hero aro not paid for their services in any case. Any exceptional case of payment for services on a special commission could bo traced in the Estimates, which are all printed and circulated as Government papers. “No doubt the salaries of the Law Lords (£6000) and J udges of the High Court (£5000) arc ample, and would probably be considered to allow a margin for any small extra services rendered to the country; and the practice of asking Judges to undertake extra work appears to be quite recent. Obviously, as editor of the ‘Law Quarterly Review,’ Sir F. Pollock cannot undertake to comment in the ‘Review’ on facts which are not fully and specifically before him. “I hope I have made it clear that in no case is any payment made to members, judicial or • otherwise, of a Royal Commission here. I don’t know what has been done in international cases like the Behring Sea and Venezuela arbitrations.—Yours truly, Edward Potton. “P.S.—Services on commissions hero are frequently rewarded with some sort, of honour. It is a common thing for a chairman of a commission to get a K.C.B. or a P.C.”