Power upon the Registrars of the Vice-Admiralty Courts.

The Section is adopted mutatis mutandis from that in the 24 Vict. c. 10.

Section 21.

The object of this Section is to place the Parties in certain Cross Causes on an equality. It is adopted with merely verbal alterations from Section 24 of the 24 Vict. c. 10. It is simply a Matter of Practice.

Section 22.

The Section provides that there shall not be any Appeal from any Decree of a Vice-Admiralty Court which is not in the Nature of a final Sentence, except by permission of the Judge.

Section 23.

The object of this Section is to obviate the great delay which has occurred from the great length of time allowed for appealing. By the 5 Geo. 4, c. 113, s. 29, the Slave Trade Consolidation Act, the time allowed for appealing from any Vice-Admiralty Court to the West of the Cape of Good Hope was 12 months, and from the Court at the Cape, and any Vice-Admiralty Court to the Eastward of the Cape, 18 months. By the 6 and 7 Vict. c. 38, s. 11, which was an Act for regulating Appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the time allowed for appealing was 12 months from the Vice-Admiralty Court at the Cape of Good Hope, and from all Vice-Admiralty Courts to the Westward thereof 18 months from Vice-Admiralty Courts to the Eastward thereof. With the present facilities of communication 6 months will probably be ample time for appealing from any Vice-Admiralty Court wherever established. It is clearly desirable to shorten the time, as far as can be done without injustice to Appellants, especially as no Distribution can be made of Bounties in Slave and Piratical Cases, or of other Naval Prize Money arising out of Prizes condemned in the Vice-Admiralty Courts, until the extreme time for appealing has expired. Power is, however, reserved to Her Majesty of extending the time allowed for appealing in Cases in which it may appear right to do so.

Section 24.

This Section repeals Three Acts which are superseded by this Act, and saves the existing rules of Practice and Tables of Fees established under the 2 and 3 Will. 4, c. 51, until new Rules shall be issued.

Schedule A.

Schedule A. contains a List of the Courts to which the Act applies. It includes all the existing Vice-Admiralty Courts, except those within Her Majesty’s Possessions in India; viz., Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Aden. These Courts have been expressly excepted at the request of the Secretary of State for India who was of opinion that the provisions of the Act should not be extended to them, no representation having reached him that any such extension was necessary.

Schedule B.

Specifies the Acts and parts of Acts repealed. They are—

(1.) 56 Geo. 3, c. 82, which confirmed the Judicial Acts of Surrogates of Vice-Admiralty Courts during vacancies in the office of Judge, and which is superseded by the general provisions contained in sections 8 and 9 of this Act.

(2.) 5 Geo. 4, c. 113, s. 29, which fixed the time to be allowed for appealing in slave trade cases, and is superseded by section 23 of this Act.

(3.) 2 and 3 Will. 4, c. 51, which is embodied in this Act, with a few verbal alterations.

(4.) 6 and 7 Vict. c. 38, s. 11, which fixed the time for appealing from the Ecclesiastical and Vice-Admiralty Courts, and which is superseded as to the latter by section 23 of this Act.

(5.) 17 and 18 Vict. c. 37, which confirmed the Judicial Acts of a Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Mauritius who had been informally appointed, and which, like the 56 Geo. 3, c. 82, is superseded by sections 8 and 9 of this Act.

Appointment of Health Officer for the Port of Otago.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Judicial Department,
Auckland, 1st October, 1863.

IT is notified for public information that JOHN DUNCAN NIVEN, Esq., M.D., has been appointed Health Officer for the Port of Otago.

ALFRED DOMETT.

Justices of the Peace Appointed.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Judicial Department,
Auckland, 30th Sept., 1863.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint

Henry Elmhirst Reader, Esq., Canterbury
Benjamin Michael Moorhouse, Esq., „
Alexander Lean, Esq., „
John Ollivier, Esq., „
William Henry Eyes, Esq., „
Herbert Belfield, Esq., „
George Kirton, Esq., Wellington
John Kirwan, Esq., „
John Marshall, Esq., of Taranaki Province

to be Justices of the Peace for the Colony of New Zealand.

ALFRED DOMETT.