XLIX. [Supreme Court to frame rules and order for Courts of Request.]

L. [Appeals to the Crown in Council may be made from final sentences, etc. of the Supreme Court, if a case involves an amount exceeding £500 and if Supreme Court allows such appeals.]

LI. [Crown in Council reserves the right to allow and hear appeals upon petition made.]

LII. [Supreme Court shall execute all judgments in appeal pronounced by the Crown in Council.]

LIII. [All Governors, commanders, magistrates, etc. are charged to assist in the execution of all powers hereby granted.] LIV. [Crown in Council reserves the power to repeal or amend this Charter of Justice.

Letters Patent of 24 August 1827 revoked.]

LV. AND WE do further ordain and direct, that the Governor of Our said Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, upon the arrival therein of these Presents, shall, by Proclamation, notify to the Inhabitants of the said Colony, the time when the Courts hereby established will be open; and as soon as the Judges of the said Supreme Court shall have assumed and entered upon the exercise of their Jurisdiction therein, then, and from thenceforth, the Supreme Court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and the Circuit Courts now established within the same, and the Jurisdiction of the said Courts respectively, shall be absolutely abolished, cease, and determine; and every Suit, Action, Complaint, Matter, or Thing, Civil or Criminal, which shall be depending in such last-mentioned Courts respectively, shall and may be proceeded upon in the Supreme Court instituted under and by virtue of these Presents, or in either of the said Circuit Courts, which shall and may have Jurisdiction within the District or Place in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, where such Action or Suit, or other Matter, Civil or Criminal respectively, shall be conducted in like manner, as if such Action or Suit, or other Matter, Civil or Criminal, had been originally commenced in one or other of the said Courts instituted under these Presents. And all the Records, Muniments, and Proceedings whatsoever of and belonging to the said Supreme Court and Circuit Courts established by the said recited Letters Patent, shall from and immediately after the opening of the said Courts respectively instituted by these Presents, be delivered over and deposited for safe custody in such of the said Courts respectively instituted under these Presents, as shall be found most convenient; and all Parties concerned shall and may have recourse to the said Records and Proceedings, as to any other Records or Proceedings of the said Courts respectively.

LVI. AND WE Do hereby further declare and direct, that during the absence from Our said Colony of the Cape of Good Hope of the Governor thereof, or if there shall be no person commissioned by Us, Our Heirs and Successors, to be the Governor of Our said Colony, then, and in every such case, all and every the Powers hereby granted to and vested in the Governor for the time being of the said Colony, shall and may be executed by and vested in the Lieutenant-Governor thereof, or the Officer for the time being administering the Government thereof.

In Witness whereof, We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself at Westminster, the Fourth Day of May, in the Second Year of Our Reign.

By Writ of Privy Seal.

BATHURST. P.R.O., C.O. 52/6 (C. of G. Hope Govt. Gazette, 14 Feb. 1834).

ADMINISTRATION OF INSOLVENT ESTATES.
[24 Oct. 1843.]
No. 6, 1843.

No. 77. Ordinance.-Enacted by the GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE
OF GOOD HOPE, with the advice and consent of the LEGIS-
LATIVE COUNCIL thereof, for Regulating the due Collection,
Administration, and Distribution of Insolvent Estates
within this Colony.

WHEREAS the Law as contained in the Ordinance No. 64, bearing date the 6th of August 1829, and intituled "An Ordinance for regulating the due collection, administration, and distribution of Insolvent Estates within this Colony,' requires certain additions and alterations: And whereas it is expedient, in order that the said additions and alterations may most conveniently be made, that the said Ordinance No. 64 should be repealed, and a new Ordinance enacted in its stead: And whereas it is also expedient, that all Insolvent Estates within this Colony should be, hereafter, administered under one uniform system of law, and, to that end, that the benefit or relief of cession of goods and property, commonly called the cessio bonorum, now available to insolvent debtors in this Colony, should be abolished: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that from and after the passing of this Ordinance, the Ordinance aforesaid No. 64, and the Publication of the 4th September 1805, respecting transfers, cessions, pledges, and other securities entered into

by debtors within twenty-eight days previous to their insolvency, and so much of Ordinance No. 5, 1842, intituled, "an Ordinance to provide for the lodgment elsewhere than in the Government Discount Bank of this Colony, of certain Monies, now by law required to be lodged in the said Bank," as is, in substance, hereinafter set forth and re-enacted, and all laws and customs heretofore in force within this Colony, in so far as the same are repugnant to, or inconsistent with, any of the provisions of this Ordinance, shall be, and the same are hereby, respectively repealed.

II. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the supreme court, or any circuit court, or for the chief justice of this colony, or any other of the judges of the supreme court, upon the petition, in writing, of any person, setting forth that he is insolvent, and desirous of surrendering his estate for the benefit of his creditors, to direct such person to appear before him, to be examined touching his said insolvency, or to require such other proof thereof, by affidavits of the said insolvent and others, as to the said court or the said judge may seem fit; . .

V. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the supreme or any circuit court, or for the chief justice of this colony, or any other of the judges of the supreme court, upon petition made in writing against any person having committed any act of insolvency, . . . to place the estate of every such person or persons under sequestration, in the hands of the master of the said court, until the same shall . . . be adjudged to be sequestrated, or the said petition shall be discharged.

[Etc.]

P.R.O., C.O. 50/1.

DUTIES OF FIELD-CORNETS. [4 July 1848.]

No. 9, 1848.

No. 78. Ordinance.-Enacted by the GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, with the advice and consent of the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL thereof, for regulating the Duties and Remuneration of Field-Cornets. WHEREAS, owing to the various alterations made from time to time, in the administration of the country districts of this colony, the functions of field-cornets have been considerably narrowed; and it is now expedient to define or describe their duties, and to substitute for the principle of a fixed annual allowance, a remuneration proportioned to the services performed: Be it enacted by the Governor of the Cape of

Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that the " Instructions of the Field-Cornets in the several Country Districts," published by the then Governor and Council of this Colony on the 24th October 1805, shall be repealed, except in so far as the same repeal any former placards, ordinances, or customs, and the same are hereby repealed accordingly. Provided always, that the field-cornets and assistant field-cornets shall continue to be appointed as at present.

2. And be it enacted, that from and after the commencement and taking effect of this Ordinance, the several duties belonging to the office of field-cornet shall be the following, that is to say,

(a) He is, by virtue of his office, bound to apprehend
without warrant, every person whom he shall
have reasonable grounds to suspect of having
committed any murder, culpable homicide, rape,
robbery, or assault with intent to commit any of
those crimes, or assault in which a dangerous
wound is given, arson, housebreaking with
intent to commit a crime therein; or theft
of any cattle, sheep, or goat; or any other crimes
of equal guilt with any of those crimes. And
he may also take into custody every person whom
he shall see engaged in any affray, or whom he
shall find attempting to commit a crime, or
already manifesting an intention so to do.
(b) Whenever it shall be brought to his knowledge
that any person, within his ward, has died other
than a natural death, namely by violence or
accident, or his own act, or the act of God, the
field-cornet shall, with all speed, repair to inspect
the body, and hold an inquest thereon.

(c) The field-cornet will obtain and transmit to the
resident magistrate the fullest information re-
specting the circumstances of any such untimely
death, and communicate, at the same time, the
result of his own observations.

(d) In cases of assault in which any wound, supposed to be dangerous, has been given, the field-cornet will repair to and examine the injured party, and apprise the resident magistrate of the case and its circumstances. . . .

3. [Remuneration of Field-Cornets according to the time spent in performing their duties.]

4. And be it enacted, that from henceforth, the fieldcornets shall be deemed and taken to be under the authority

of the resident magistrate of the district, as well as of the civil commissioner of the division.

5. [This Ordinance not to affect former laws imposing duties on Field-Cornets.]

6. [Ordinance to take effect from 1 Jan. 1849.]

P.R.O., C.O. 50/2.

TRIAL BY JURY IN CIVIL CASES, 1854.

I reserve this Bill for the signification of Her Majesty's

pleasure.

(Signed) C. H. DARLING, Lt.-Governor.

26th Sept. 1854.

No. 7, 1854.1

No. 79. A Bill for Extending Trial by Jury to Civil Cases.

WHEREAS it is expedient that Trial by Jury in Civil Cases should be introduced into this Colony: And whereas it is fitting that Trial by Jury in Civil Cases should, in the first instance, be limited to Civil Cases depending in the Supreme Court Be it enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the Advice and Consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly thereof, as follows:

I. So much, if any, of the Letters Patent of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth Day of May, in the second Year of his Reign, and commonly called the "Charter of Justice," and so much, if any, of any other Law or Ordinance heretofore existing in this Colony, as shall be repugnant or inconsistent with any of the Provisions of this Act, shall be repealed, and the same is hereby repealed accordingly.

II. From and after the commencement of this Act, every Question, or Matter of Fact, or of mixed Law and Fact, in dispute between the Parties to any Civil Case depending in the Supreme Court of this Colony shall, except as is hereinafter in the 4th Section provided, be tried by Jury.

III. No Question which shall be a pure and unmixed Question of Law shall be, at any time, or in any case, referred or submitted to a Jury, but every such Question shall be reserved for the determination of the Court.

IV. It shall be competent for the Attorney of either of the Parties to any Civil Case depending in the Supreme Court, at any time after the Pleadings in such Case shall have been closed, to serve a Notice upon the Attorney of the opposite Party, calling upon him to attend before a Judge of the Supreme 1 Superseded by Act No. 23 of 1891. Cf. Nos. 142 and 164,

1