Attorney General's Chambers' rigid scheduling practices.

He said Supreme Court cases could be brought to trial more swiftly by adopting a "follow-on'' system instead of pre-fixing trial dates.

Under such a system, trials would be shunted forward into available court space.

The Chief Justice cited a recent example where a guilty plea at the last hour cut short a pre-scheduled trial by two weeks.

"Criminal work impacts most of the community. The public have a right to see these things are disposed of,'' he told the court.

But Senior Crown Counsel Mr. Brian Calhoun protested that, in practice, a follow-on system posed enormous problems for both prosecution and defence.

"There are major problems with the follow-on system,'' he said. "Often witnesses are overseas and we have to count on their co-operation. In certain types of offences, witnesses are not easily located. We have to find them and subpoena them to a fixed date.'' He said a follow-on system where overseas witnesses are told they may be called to testify at any time or at short notice was impractical.

"We can't force witnesses to be on some type of hold,'' he told the Chief Justice. "We will try to put some on follow-on but it is functionally impossible.'' Mr. Calhoun said often defence counsels have difficulty tracking down their own clients and bringing them to trial on short notice. But the Chief Justice blamed this on legal aid.

"If they were paying for their own counsel that would not be a problem,'' he said.

"I don't think the problems are as big as you make them,'' he told Mr.

Calhoun. "If they are difficult to find, they should be kept in custody.''