NEW ZEALAND ORDINANCES, PASSED JANUARY 13,1814.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 103, 24 February 1844, Page 410

NEW ZEALAND ORDINANCES, PASSED JANUARY 13, 1814.

SUPREME COURT, ORDINANCE. Be it enacted by the Governor of New Zealand, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows : — I. — Creation of Court. 1. Creation and Style of Covet. — There shall be within the colony of New Zealand a Court of Record for the administration of justice throughout the colony, which court shall be called the Supreme Court of New Zealand. II. — Jurisdiction of Court. 2. LboaL. — The court shall have jurisdiction in all cases as fully as her Majesty's Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, at Westminister, have in England. 3. Equitable. — The court shall also have all such equitable jurisdiction as the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain hath in England. ■4. Ecclesiastical. — The court shall also have exclusive jurisdiction in all questions relating to testacy and intestacy and tiie validity of wills of personal property, as fully as any Ecclesiastical Court hath in England. The court shall also have exclusive power to grant probates of wills and letters of administration of the estates and effects of deceased persons, and to take order for the due passing of the accounts of the executors and administrators of such persons. 5. Lunacy. — The court shall also hate power to appoint and control guardians of infants and their estates, and also committees of the persons and estates of idiots, lunatics, and such as being of unsound mind are unable to govern themselves and their estates. 6. Vice Admiralty Instance Court. — The court shall also be an Instance Court of Vice-Ad-miralty, with such power and jurisdiction as belong to courts of the like nature within the colonial possessions of her Majesty. 7. Criminal Jurisdiction. — The court shall have cognizance of all crimes and offences committed within the jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiral of the Colony of New Zealand, as fully and effectually as if tiie same had been committed on the land within the limits of the colony. 8. Jurisdiction. — The court shall not take cognisance of any criminal case where the offence shall have been committed previous to the 14th day of January, 1840. 9. Seal.— The court shall have and use a seal, wherewith all writs and other process issuing out of the court shall be sealed. 111. — Constitution of Court. 10. Judges. — The court shall consist of one judge, who "shall be called the Chief Justice of New Zealand, and of such other judges as her Majesty shall front time to time be pleased to appoint: Provided that it shall be lawful for his Excellency the Governor to appoint such judges provisionally until her Majesty's pleasure shall be known. The judges of the court shall hold their office during her Majesty's pleasure. 11. Oath of Office. — Every judge before entering on his office shall take an oath, according to the form in the schedule hereunto annexed, faithfully to execute the duties thereof. 12. Districts. — It shall be lawful for his Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive. Council, by proclamation from time to time, to divide the colony into districts for the purpose of this ordinance, and the limits of such districts from time to time to alter, as occasion may require. It shall also be; lawful for his Excellency the Governor to assign to each of such districts a judge or judges, who shall have within the same all the powers and jurisdiction hereby given to the Supreme Court. 13. Officxbs or the Court.— There shall belong to the court such registrars and inferior officers for each of such districts as to the judge or judges of each of such districts shall appear necessary, subject to the approval of his Excellency the Governor. 14. Registrars. — The registrars shall be appointed provisionally by his Excellency the Governor, and shall hold their offices during her Majesty's pleasure. 15. Inferior Officers. — The inferior officers of each district shall be appointed by the judge or judges of the respective districts, with the sanction of his Excellency the Governor, and shall be removeable on reasonable cause by the judge or judges of the respective districts, with the sanction of his Excellency the Governor. 16. Barristers and Solicitors. — There shall be enrolled in the court, to practise therein as barristers, such persons only as shall have been admitted barristers or advocates in Great Britain or Ireland, or such as shall be admitted hereafter witfcin the colony under the authority of any law that may hereafter be passed for that purpose ; sod to practise therein as solicitors, such persons only as shall have been admitted as solicitors, attorneys, or writers in one of the courts of Westminster, Dublin or Edinburgh, or proctors in any Ecclesiastical Court in England, or shall have served such term of clerkship with a solicitor of the court as shall be required by the General Rules thereof, or shall have established themselves in the exercise of their profession on or before the 22d day of December 1841. All persons so enrolled shall be removeable from the rolls of the court upon reasonable cause, whensoever and wheresoever the same may have arisen. 17. Their Practice. — The barristers of the court shall be tillayd trr act is solicitors, and the solicitors of the co&i to «cfr also as barristers, for the period of five yeaa%afer the passing of tins ordinance, unless the court shall in the meantime make order to the contrary; any such order may extend to the whole colony, or may be restricted to any part thereof, as to the court shall seem fit. 18. Sheriff. — His Excellency the Governor shall, by warrant under hi* hand, appoint provisionally, subject to her Majesty's confirmation, fit persons to be sheriffs of the several counties or districts (as the case may be) of the colony, who shall be removeable by the Governor, on reasonable cause : Provided that no sheriff shall be in any way concerned in the conduct of any suit in any court, either as barrister, solicitor, or agent. 19. Oath. — Each sheriff shall, upon his appointment, tike an oath before a Judge of the Supreme . Ccurt, or some person specially appointed by such judge, according to the form in tne schedule herevuto annexed, faithfully *o*exeeote4he duties of

20. Duties. — Each sheriff shall have such powers and privileges only, and such duties and responsibilities only, as a sheriff by law hath or is liable to in England as a ministerial officer of one of her Majesty's 1 superior courts at Westminster. 21. Process "when Sheriff disqualified. — Whenever any process shall issue which the sheriff ought not by law to execute, the court shall appoint Bocue other fit person to execute the same ; and in every such case the cause of such special proceeding shall be entered upon the records of the court. IV. — Practice of the Court. 22. Trial by Jury. — All questions of fact upon which issue shall be taken in the course of any proceeding before the court, and all questions of idiotcy, lunacy, or unsoundness of mind, shall be decided by a verdict of a jury of twelve men. 23. Circuits. — There shall be holden Circuit Courts for the despatch of civil and criminal business of the court, before one of the judges .thereof, at such places and at such times as his Excellency the Governor shall, with the advice of the Executive Council, by proclamation, from time i to time, appoint. 24. Powers of Judge on Circuit. — It shall be lawful for a single judge of the court on circuit, or otherwise, to hear and determine all cases of crimes and misdemeanors committed within the district, and any issues of fact joined in any action or proceeding in the Supreme Court, or removed thereto for trial out of any other district, by virtue of any general rules of the Supreme Court, and to exercise all such powers and jurisdiction as Courts of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery and Assize and Nisi Prius have in England. 25. Rules for Practicb. — Their Force and Effect. — It shall be lawful for the judges of the court from time to time to make rules for regulating the time and place for holding the court, and the practice and pleadings upon all indictments, informations, suits, and other proceedings therein ; the proceedings of the sheriffs and other ministerial officers; the admission of barristers and solicitors; the fees and poundage to be paid to any officer ; costs of suit and the taxing thereof, and all matters relating to the business of the court; and such rules from time to time to alter or revoke: Provided that the same shall not be repugnant to any of the provisions hereinbefore contained, and provided also that the said rules to be made under the authority aforesaid shall be submitted to the Governor in Council, and, upon being approved, shall have the same force and effect as if they had been inserted herein> until the termination of the sitting of the Legislative Council next following their approval by the Governor m Council. 26. Fee Fund. — All fees received by the registrars, as well as those received by the inferior officers of the court, shall be accounted for and paid over quarterly to the Colonial Treasurer, .and shall form a fund to be called the " Fee Fund," which shall be charged with the salaries of all the officers of the court.

27. Proceedings pending.— All proceedings which have been commenced in the Supreme Court under the authority of the Supreme Court Ordinance, Session 11., No. 1, and which are still pending and incomplete, shall continue in as full force and effect as if the same had been com<menced under the authority hereof. SCHEDTTL'E REFERRED TO. FORM OF OATH. I, A. 8., do swear, that I will truly and faithfully, and to the best and utmost of my skill and knowledge, discharge the duties of [Chief Justice or Judge of the Supreme Court, or Sheriff, as the case may be], without fear, favour, or malice. So help me God.