236 THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. [No. 13]
Consul or other recognised authority of the foreign country
to which the vessel in question belongs. (See "The Agin-
court," 2 Probate Division, 239.)
26. It is assumed that the provisions of the above Acts
respecting procedure will not apply to the colonial Courts,
and that, even if they were held to be applicable, the rules of
Court under clause 7 of the Act will supersede them.
27. Subsection (3) confers on the colonial Court the juris-
diction given by Imperial statute to a Vice-Admiralty Court,
as, for instance, by the Slave Trade or Pacific Islanders Acts,
and also the jurisdiction which is conferred by the law of a
colony on a Vice-Admiralty Court in that colony.
28. Proviso (a) refers to those cases where the statutory
jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court is limited by reference to
England or Wales ; as, for instance, in 24 and 25 Vict., c. 10,
s. 5, where the jurisdiction is ousted if the owner of the ship
is domiciled in England or Wales ; and ss. 6, 8, where the
jurisdiction exists only over goods carried into a port in
England or Wales, or in respect of a ship registered in Eng-
land or Wales.
29. Proviso (b) excludes from the jurisdiction of the colo-
nial Court of Admiralty the powers not at present possessed
by Vice-Admiralty Courts owing to their being conferred (by
the Acts here mentioned) on the High Court of Admiralty
exclusively as a Court for reviewing or enforcing a decree in
another Court, or as a Court to control grants out of the
Imperial Exchequer. See 27 and 28 Vict., c. 25, ss. 4, 13,
52, and 36 and 37 Vict., c. 88, ss. 19, 20.
30. The practice has been to establish Prize Courts ad hoc
on a war breaking out. This it is proposed to leave un-
touched by the present Act, but a Bill to alter it has been
prepared and is under consideration. The question is one of
some difficulty, as the decisions of Prize Courts may seriously
affect both the Imperial Exchequer and our relation with
foreign Powers.
31. I may observe that the Act 3 and 4 Vict., c. 65, s. 22,
confers on the High Court of Admiralty jurisdiction to
determine all matters concerning booty of war which it shall
please Her Majesty to refer to the Court; and, as the juris-
diction here depends on a reference by the Queen, the juris-
diction will not pass to a colonial Court of Admiralty unless
the Queen chooses to refer any such matter to it.
32. Proviso (d).—Contempt in Breach of Regulations for
Her Majesty's Navy.—This refers to s. 11 of the Vice-
Admiralty Courts Act of 1863.
33. Under the Naval Discipline Act (29 and 30 Vict., c.
109, s. 30) officers of Her Majesty's ships appointed to convoy
merchant-ships are liable in case of misconduct to pay to the
owners of the ships such damages as the Court of Admiralty
may adjudge. No definition is given of " Court of
Admiralty," and, therefore, it might be contended that the
jurisdiction can be exercised by Vice-Admiralty Courts.
By this proviso in the Act the jurisdiction is restricted to
the High Court of Admiralty unless the Queen confers it on
the colonial Court.

Section 8.
34. It is understood that the proceeds of condemned dere-
licts and of goods captured from pirates are droits of
Admiralty, and that ships taken by private persons without
letters of marque, also enemy's goods found derelict, also the
proceeds of forfeitures under the Slave Trade Acts, the
Pacific Islanders Acts, the Foreign Enlistment Act, or other
Acts, are droits of or forfeitures to the Crown.
35. The Board of Trade is, under 17 and 18 Vict., c. 120,
s. 10, the Receiver-General of droits of Admiralty, and the
Vice-Admirals have by their commission the duty of recover-
ing droits of Admiralty. Either through the Board of Trade
or Vice-Admiral, or through the Vice-Admiralty Court as an
Imperial Court, and the Admiralty Registry of the High
Court in England, the droits of Admiralty and the droits of
and forfeitures to the Crown are reported and remitted to
England, and paid into the Imperial Exchequer ; subject to
the payment made either by custom or by statute to the
persons concerned in the bringing in of the derelict or the
capture of the pirate or other forfeited vessel. The droits
are part of the hereditary casual revenues surrendered by
the Queen during her life (1 and 2 Vict., c. 2).
36. As the Court in which these droits and forfeitures will
under the Act be condemned will be a colonial Court and
not a Court appointed by the Admiralty, it was necessary to
provide, as in this section, for their being accounted for and
dealt with.
37. In many cases it will probably be more convenient
that the proceeds of the droits and forfeitures should go to
the colonial instead of to the Imperial Exchequer, and there-
fore the Queen is authorised to surrender the droits and
forfeitures to a colony on such terms as may seem fit. It
must, however, on any such surrender to a colony, be borne
in mind that under section 9 a Vice-Admiralty Court may be
set up in the colony, and in such a case a question may
arise whether the droits and forfeitures are to revert to the
Imperial Exchequer or are to be accounted for by the Vice-
Admiralty Court to the Colonial Exchequer.
38. In the circular despatch transmitting the Bill to the
colonies, Lord Derby, in drawing attention to section 8 of
the Bill, which is similar to section 8 of this Act, intimated
that any colony desiring to retain these droits and forfeitures
would be required to assume responsibility for any damages
which Her Majesty's Government might become liable by
reason of the exercise of the jurisdiction transferred under
this Bill, and special reference was made to the 23rd section
of the Foreign Enlistment Act.
39. The only colonies which have declared their accept-
ance of these terms are Canada, Tasmania, New Zealand,
and the Cape of Good Hope. But the non-acceptance of
these terms by a colony need not prevent the application of
the Act to that colony, for the section has been so drawn as
to leave matters in statu quo, but to enable the Secretary of
State from time to time to make arrangements with the
several colonies. Thus, the section providing for the transfer
of droits and forfeitures has no immediate operation, and
any changes to be effected by Order of Council under it will
be dependent upon political and administrative considera-
tions peculiar to the individual colonies.
40. It seems probable, indeed, that in New South Wales
and Victoria the droits and forfeitures referred to have
already been surrendered by her Majesty. The New South
Wales Act, 17 Vict., c. 41 (scheduled to 18 and 19 Vict., c. 54,
the New South Wales Constitution Act), s. 50, provides as
follows : " The said several sums mentioned in Schedules
A, B, and C shall be accepted and taken by Her Majesty,
her heirs and successors, by way of civil list, instead of all
territorial, casual, and other revenues of the Crown (includ-
ing all royalties) from whatever source arising within the
said colony, and to the disposal of which the Crown may be
entitled either absolutely or conditionally or otherwise how-
soever." The same provision is to be found in s. 47 of the
Victorian Act scheduled to 18 and 19 Vict., c. 55 ; and it may
be observed also that by a Customs Act of Victoria (21 Vict.,
No. 13, s. 67) " derelict, jetsam, flotsam, and wreck, brought
or coming into the colony, and all droits of Admiralty sold
in the colony," are subjected to import duty.

Section 13.
41. As the slave trade is a peculiar matter outside the
ordinary Admiralty jurisdiction, and the jurisdiction relative
to it is exercised by Consular Courts and mixed Courts as
well as Vice-Admiralty Courts, the Act leaves the rules to
be made by the Queen in Council so that there may be uni-
formity of procedure in the Courts. Vice-Admiralty Courts
are mentioned having regard to action under section 9.
42. Subsection (3) is required in consequence of s. 4 of 36
and 37 Vict., c. 53, referring, as regards appeals, to " The
Vice-Admiralty Courts Act, 1863," which is repealed.

Section 17.
43. Subsection (3). At present the Judge, Registrar, and
officers of a Vice-Admiralty Court in a colony are re-
munerated by means of fees. The holder of any of these
offices is usually also a Judge or officer of the Supreme
Court of the colony, but performs his Admiralty business
independently of his connection with such Court, and con-
sequently receives the fees in addition to the salary he
receives as Judge or officer of the colonial Court.
44. The Act, by making the Admiralty business part of the
business of the colonial Court, will put and end to this
system. The business will be transacted by the Judge,
Registrar, &c., as part of the ordinary business of his Court,
and the fees will, it is presumed, go to the same fund as the
other Court fees.
45. Any injustice to an individual who at present receives
fees should be prevented, and this may be done in two ways :
Compensation for this purpose may be given not merely by a
money-payment either as a lump sum or annually, but also
by improving his official position, or by continuing to pay
him the fees, whatever they may be, which are for the time
being paid in respect of the business for which he at present
receives fees. To effect this object subsection (3) is inserted.
46. The work of the Vice-Admiralty Courts is in most
colonies small and intermittent, and in but few is there
sufficient to afford any basis upon which to settle compensa-
tion to officers whose appointments will cease with the
abolition of the Vice-Admiralty Courts ; and under these
circumstances the great majority of the colonies propose
that the fees shall be continued to the present holders of
offices. Where this is proposed the fees would be taken like
other Court fees, and paid into the Colonial Treasury, and
the compensation would consist in the payment out of that
Treasury of equivalent sums to the present holders of offices.
47. It has been represented that in cases where under
section 16 (3) the Vice-Admiralty rules will be continued in
the colonial Court, a scale of prescribed fees will be in force ;
but there will, on the abolition of the Vice-Admiralty Courts,
be no officers entitled to take such fees. That subsection
accordingly allows the fees to be taken in manner directed
by the Court ; but the amounts are to be paid to the officers
at present entitled to them.