GENERAL ASSEMBLY BILLS FOR NEXT SESSION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 43, 24 April 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY BILLS FOR NEXT SESSION.

- (From the Advertiser, March 29.) INFERIOR COVETS. Ono of the moat important measures it is proposed to submit, to the General Assembly in its next session is intituled “ An Act to Establish Sessional Circuit Courts, Resident Magistrate’s Courts, and Petty Sessions of the Peace, of Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction in the Colony.” It will supersede the laws at present in force with regard to these matters. The following are some of. its most important provisions : Sessional Circuit Districts may contain any number of other districts. The Governor may appoint as many fit persons as are needed to be Sessional Court Judges, who must be barristers or solicitors, who must not be in partnership with any other solicitor, and who must not act as solicitor or agent in any Court within the Colony. He may, however, act as a barrister iu the Supreme Court, as a conveyancer, or before .the land registrars. Governor to appoint Resident Magistrates, who are not to be concerned as solicitors in their own Courts; to have all the powers of one or two Justices of the Peace. The Governor to have power to remove Sessional Judge or Resident Magistrate to other district; and the same person may be Judge or Resident Magistrate for one or more Courts. The Governor to have power to appoint Judge of Supreme Court, resident within a Sessional Court district, Judge thereof. The Petty Session’s Court to be held before the Justices of the Peace whose duties it shall be to attend such Courts within their respective districts who, at a meeting to be called by the Governor are to elect a Chairman of the Sessions, and to settle rota of attendance: Justices failing to attend four times iu the year to be removed from the Commission of the Peace. The Chairman to be entitled to a fee of two guineas for each attendance, and the Justices to be allowed Is. 6d. for every mile that his residence sha’l be distant from the place of meeting. The decisions of Petty Session’s and Resident Magistrate’s Courts to be by majority. Resident Magistrates may act alone. Governor to appoint Native Assessors and to make regulations for their attendance. Natives or half-castes may object to proceed unless two Native Assessors are present, and no judgement to be given in such cases unless with the approval of one Assessor. Each Court to have respectively a Clerk to be appointed by and to hold office during the pleasure oi the Governor, who is to issue all summonses, warrants, &c., and receive and take charge of all fees and fines, &c. Each Court to have a Bailiff to serve all summonses, &c., and a court seal by which every summons and process must be stamped. Every process may be executed and carried into effect in all places within the Colony. _ The jurisdiction of Sessional Circuit Courts in civil cases is limited to £IOO, and Petty Session’s and Resident Magistrate’s Courts to £2O. The Governor iu Council, however, may extend the limits of jurisdiction in the one case to £250 and in the other to £SO. Courts not to have jurisdiction in questions of title, &e., unless by consent of both parties. Judge of t he Sessional Court may decide any claim, the immediate object of the action, though questions of title may incidentally arise. Court to have cognizance of action as to real estate or devise within the limits of their jurisdiction. Division of cause of action not permitted, but plaintiffs may abandon excess and got judgment within jurisdiction. Minors may sue tor wages. Executors or administrators may sue or he sued. No solicitor or other person to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the Court. One of several persons jointly liable may he sued. Sessional Court Judges, in districts where a Judge of the Supreme Court does not reside, can grant injunctions, and issue writs of arrest, and to have jurisdiction in ejectment and replevin, and can refer matter in dispute to arbitration. Sessional Circuit Courts to have criminal jurisdiction in all cases iu which the crime shall not bo punishable with more than four years’ penal servitude. Every trial to be by jury. Resident Magistrate’s and Petty Session’s Courts to have cognizance of such criminal cases arising within thcrir jurisdiction as can by law be dealt with summarily. Trivial cases may he dismissed, and charges of larceney under a certain amount may be dealt with summarily. If party make confession, and the property stolen be not above £5, he may be dealt with summarily. The Courts have power to award a portion of fines to the injured party, and to enforce attendance of witnesses, and any order they can lawfully make may be enforced by attachment. The above are the chief provisions of a measure which appears to have been framed with great care and which the circumstances of the Colony urgently required. The permission given to a Judge or Resident Magistrate to hold two or more offices will enable men of ability to accept them, and at the same time render the Court less expensive to the Colony than it otherwise would be. The J udge of the Supreme Court should in all esses ho Sessional J udge within the Sessional Court district in which he resides. We can see no reason why, in all cases of debt not exceeding £250, the Sessional Court should not, with the consent of both parties have jurisdiction under the Act without requiring the consent of the Governor in Council. It is to he hoped that the rules under the Act will he of that simple character, and the fees fixed at such a moderate amount, as will enable all parties to obtain cheap as well as speedy justice. JURIES. It is proposed to introduce a Bill for regulating juries. Jury districts are to be established by the Governor within the Colony. Every natural born O? iiut Urn} s oC V nmnfxf• fx ATIfl llVlder sixty, qualified and liable to serve. Jury lists to be prepared by a Jury Returning Officer, and to he posted at least ten days before the sitting of the Justices, for correcting the same, in some public place. Notice of meeting to correct lists to bo published in a newspaper. Atthe meeting of Justices, persons not qualified or exempt to he struck out of list and omissions and errors to ho corrected. The Sheriff of the district on the receipt of the jury list to select thereout the names of all persons that shall be described therein as esquires, gentlemen, bankers, merchants, accountants, civil engineers, and architects, to be Special Jurors. Par-

ty applying for Special Jury to pay expenses. Nonattending jurors to be fined in any sum not exceeding £lO. A special juror to be paid 205., and a common juror 10s. for every day's attendance. Natives or half-castes may be jurors in certain cases. Subject to rules to be made-in-that behalf, mixed juries to sit on native cases. The Governor in Council to frame and establish rules for regulating all proceedings whatever in relation to juries and trials by jury under this Act; and for arranging lists of juries, summoning juries, and determining the order in which they shall attend. Under the last-named provision it is more than probable that the present mode of summoning jurors in alphabetical order will be abandoned. Powers in this and some of the other Bills are given to the Executive which ought to he exercised by the Legislature. The mode in which jurors should he summoned ought to be set forth in the Act itself. Are special and common jurors—who it will be seen are to be paid—to he exempt, as at present, from serving as petty jurors in criminal cases? Are these and other inportant matters to be left to the discretion of the Sheriff, or be subject to a rule made without the advice and consent of the Legislature ? GAOLS. Another Bill, which it is proposed to submit to the General Assembly at its next session, is one intituled “ An Act for Establishing and Regulating Gaols and prisons.” The Ordinances of the Legislative Council, and of Provincial Councils, repugnant to this Act, are repealed. The Governor by proclamation to have power to declare any place a public gaol, and prisoners may be removed by order of the Governor to any place w ithin the Colony for the purpose of being employed on public works under regulations to be mnde.by the Governor in Council. The gaoler to carry out any sentence of death : the .Sheriff" exonerated from performing such duty. Power is given to the Governor to make regulations, which, in our opinion, should not be granted unless under some defined restrictions ; it is a matter in which the Legislature should have some voice. Visiting Justices, to he appointed by the Governor, to make quarterly reports. These reports should be laid not only before the Governor but before the General and Provincial Legislatures. The Governor is empowered to delegate his powers under this Act to the Superintendents of Provinces subjects to regulations to be made by him in that behalf. It will depend upon the regulations to be made whether these powers arc properly exercised. CONSTABULARY FORCE. A Bill intituled “An Act for Regulating the Constabulary Force” is also proposed by our anticentralising Ministry, and is to he submitted to tho G enoral Assembly next session. We are as far from thinking that the present laws in force on the subject do not require amendment, as we are that the General Assembly is the proper body to deal with it. The appointment and payment of constables is a matter primarily of local concern, with which the General Government has no right to inter-meddle. Every district ought to be empowered to appoint its own constables, and if more than the lees were required for the payment of their services the publicans’ licenses would furnish a legitimate fund for that purpose. In towns they should be appointed by the Municipal Councils, where they would be required rather to act as night watch-men than as an armed police—a force of continental orgin, which certainly is notrequired to be embodied in a well-governed country. In the event of this Bill being abandoned or radically amended—which is almost sure to be the case—we would suggest the insertion of the following clause from this measure in tho Inferior Courts’ Act:— “ If within any district of the Colony appointed as Petty Session’s Districts, or as a Resident Magistrate’s District, it shall at any time appear to the Court that there is no constable, or not a sufficient number of constables for the execution of the duties proper to be exercised by constables within such district, it shall be lawful for any such Court to appoint a fit person or persons to he a constable or constables within and for tho province in which such district is situate ; and every such constable shall be entitled to receive and retain for his own use and emolument the fees and allowances set forth in schedule, and which shall be paid accordingly ; but lie shall not he entitled to any further pay or allowance except by authority of the Superintendent of the Province.”