And whereas it is expedient, without awaiting the legislative establishment within the said District, of the Court or Courts for the administration of Justice, which is, or are, now about to be created, to make provision for the establishment of such Laws as are immediately and indispensably required for the preservation, in the meantime, of peace and good order, and the repression of violence, injury, and injustice amongst all Persons resident in the said District: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that the system, code, or body of law commonly called the Roman-Dutch Law, as the same has been and is accepted, and administered by the legal tribunals of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, shall be, and the same is hereby, established as the law, for the time being, of the District of Natal, (as the said District shall, from time to time, be limited and defined by or on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen,) and of Her Majesty's Subjects, and all others residing and being within the said District : Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be deemed, or taken, to establish within the said District, any Law or Ordinance heretofore at any time made or passed in this Colony, by or through the Local Government or Legislature thereof, or to give any existing Court or Magistrate of the said Colony, any authority or jurisdiction over or in regard to the said District, or to prevent the said system, code, or body of law from being hereafter added to, or altered, in regard to the said District, by any competent authority. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the Governor aforesaid to address to any one or more of Her Majesty's Subjects residing within the said District one or more commission or commissions, authorizing him or them to exercise within such District the office of a Magistrate, for the purpose of preventing the perpetration therein of any crimes and offences punishable by law, and for the purpose of arresting and committing to custody for trial before the certain court or courts now about to be established within the said District, any person or persons charged, on sufficient evidence, with the commission of any crimes or offences within the said District, which shall have been committed after the date of the publication of this Ordinance in the Government Gazette, as hereinafter mentioned: Provided always that every such commission shall be revocable at pleasure; and provided also, that any person committed for trial by any such Magistrate . who shall not be brought to trial within six months from the date of his commitment, shall, at the expiration of such term of six months, be discharged from custody, upon entering into his own recognizance, conditioned in such sum as shall appear just and reasonable, to appear before any such court or courts as aforesaid, when duly summoned so to do, there to answer to any such charge as may be preferred against him. And be it enacted, that this Ordinance shall commence and take effect from and after the date of the promulgation thereof, by publication thereof in the Government Gazette. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. Given at the Cape of Good Hope this Twenty-seventh day of August 1845. By Command of His Excellency the Governor, Secretary to Government. By Order of the Legislative Council, (Signed) K. B. HAMILTON, P.R.O., C.O. 50/2. DISTRICT COURT. [16 Oct. 1845.] No. 137. Ordinance.-For erecting a District Court in and for the District of Natal. WHEREAS in order to the due administration of justice in the district of Natal, it is expedient that a district court of justice should be therein erected; Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that there shall be erected, created and constituted, within the said district of Natal, a certain court to be called and known as "the District Court of Natal." 2. [To be a court of record.] 3. And be it enacted, that the said court shall consist of, and be holden by and before, one judge, to be called and known by the style and title of the Recorder 2 of the District of Natal, and which said recorder shall, from time to time, be nominated and appointed by Her Majesty the Queen, her heirs and successors, in such manner and form as her said Majesty shall deem most fitting, and which said recorder shall be a barrister in England or Ireland, or an advocate of the court of session in Scotland or of the supreme court of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 4. [Until such Recorder appointed by the Queen shall arrive in Natal, the Governor shall nominate some fit person to act as Recorder.] 1 Repealed by Law No. 10 of 1857, below. 2 By Ord. No. 18 of 1856 he was to be designated Attorney-General. 5. [Recorder to take oaths taken by the chief justice of the Cape.] 6. Lieutenant-Governor of Natal may appoint temporarily to the office if it should fall vacant.] 7. [Recorder to hold his office during good behaviour. Upon proof of misconduct the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal may, with the advice of his executive council, suspend the Recorder; but report of such suspension is to be made forthwith to the Governor of the Cape for transmission to Her Majesty.] 8. [Full power is reserved to Her Majesty to confirm or disallow such suspension; as well as full power, upon sufficient proof of misconduct, to remove the Recorder.] 9. [Rank and precedence of Recorder.] 10. [District Court to have a seal.] II. [Seal to be kept by Recorder.j 12-13. [Salary of Recorder.] 14. [Officers corresponding to sheriff, registrar and master of Cape Supreme Court, to be appointed by the Queen. Other officers to be appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. All officers to hold office during the Queen's pleasure.] 15-19. [Admission of advocates and attorneys.] 20. [District Court to have the same jurisdiction as the Cape Supreme Court.] 21. [District Court to judge according to laws now in force in Natal or hereafter to be made for Natal by Parliament, by the Privy Council or by the Legislative Council of the Cape.] 22. [Proceedings to be in open court and in the English language. In criminal cases witnesses shall deliver their evidence viva voce and in open court.] 23. [Criminal cases to be tried before the Recorder and a jury of nine. No juror to be disqualified merely by reason of his ignorance of the English language.] 24. [The chief seat of the District Court is to be Pietermaritzburg.] 25-26. [Recorder shall hold his court at least twice a year in such other divisions as the Lieutenant-Governor shall proclaim.] 27. [No sentence of the District Court involving death, transportation or banishment shall be carried out until approved of by the Lieutenant-Governor.] 28. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the district court aforesaid, in any criminal case pending in or before the said court, after a verdict of guilty shall have been recorded, to abstain, should the said court see cause, from then passing sentence upon the person convicted, and to order and direct that such case be removed from the said district court to the supreme court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, for the decision, or determination, of any points or questions of law arising in such case; and upon such removal being certified, . . . the said last-mentioned court shall proceed to adjudge, decide or determine the said points or questions, and shall then remit the case with its judgment, decision or determination to the said circuit [district?] court, which said court shall conform to, and give effect to, the same; [provided that it shall not be necessary for the person convicted to be present in the supreme court; meantime the district court shall commit to prison the person convicted or release him on bail]. 29. [Rules of court to be framed by the District Court.] 30. [In all civil suits appeals may be made to the Supreme Court of the Cape.] 31-33. [Regulation of such appeals.] 34. [A case coming before the Supreme Court or the District Court may be removed by the court concerned to the other court.] 35. [The District Court shall see to the execution of judgments, decrees, etc. pronounced by the Supreme Court and Circuit Courts.] 36. [Certified records of cases to be supplied by one court to the others if required.] 37. [Lieutenant-Governor of Natal to notify where and when the District Court shall be held.] 38. [Interpretation of terms.] 39. [Ordinance to take effect from date of promulgation.] P.R.O., C.O. 52/11 (C. of G. Hope Govt. Gaz., 17 Oct. 1845). FIELD-CORNETS AND CONSTABLES. [7 Jan. 1846.] No. 5, 1846. No. 138. Ordinance.-Enacted by the GoVERNOR OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, with the advice and consent of the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL thereof, for creating Field-Cornets and Constables in and for the District of Natal. WHEREAS it is expedient that the Lieutenant-Governor of the district of Natal should be authorised and empowered to appoint field-cornets and constables to act in the said district : Be it, therefore, enacted, by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that the said Lieutenant-Governor shall have, possess and exercise, in regard to the district of Natal, all and singular the like powers and authorities for appointing field-cornets and policemen, and for fixing the limits of field-cornetcies, and of the bailiwicks of constables and policemen, as the Governor aforesaid has and possesses in regard to those parts of this colony other than the said district; And every fieldcornet, constable and policeman so appointed as aforesaid shall be, within his ward or bailiwick, as the case may be, an officer of the law proper for the execution of criminal warrants, within the meaning of Ordinance No. 18, 1845, and shall, moreover, have and enjoy the powers and authorities, and perform the same or similar duties as those by law belonging to fieldcornets, constables and policemen respectively, in those parts of this colony other than the district aforesaid. 2. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the Lieutenant-Governor aforesaid, by any writing under his hand, to authorise any magistrate, justice of the peace or other person within the district of Natal, to appoint constables and policemen respectively, in such numbers and under such conditions and regulations as the said Lieutenant-Governor shall, from time to time, fix and prescribe, and every constable or policeman so appointed shall have and possess the same powers and authorities as a constable or policeman appointed directly by the said Lieutenant-Governor. 3. And be it enacted, that this Ordinance shall commence and take effect from and after such date as shall be fixed and appointed for the commencement thereof, by any proclamation to be by the Lieutenant-Governor of the said district for that purpose issued and posted upon, or affixed to, any public place in Pietermauritzburg, in the said district. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. P.R.O., C.O. 50/2. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. [7 Jan. 1846.] No. 6, 1846. the No. 139. Ordinance. - Enacted by His Excellency GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, with the advice and consent of the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL thereof, for creating Justices of the Peace within the District of Natal. WHEREAS it is expedient that Justices of the Peace should be appointed for the district of Natal, having the like powers and authorities as Justices of the Peace in other parts of this Colony Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that it shall and may be lawful for the Lieutenant-Governor of the district of Natal to appoint, by commissions under his hand and seal, Justices of the Peace for the said district, and to assign to every such Justice of the |