A right of appeal exists in all these cases. Appeals are heard by a Full Court consisting of two or more judges. Under the Magistrates Ordinance, 1932, as amended by Ordinance No. 19 of 1935, any person aggrieved may appeal to a judge from the decision of a magistrate. This form of appeal is heard by a single judge who may reserve the appeal or any point in it for consideration by the Full Court, or may direct the appeal or the point to be argued before the Full Court.
986 Original Jurisdiction actions were instituted in 1950, nearly three times as many as in 1947 and 1948 and considerably higher than the number of actions brought in 1949. The number of Summary Jurisdiction actions also increased to 562 as compared with 439 in 1949.
The Assizes were formally opened on the 18th January 1950. A service was held at St. John's Cathedral, at which members of both branches of the legal profession were present, as well as prominent citizens and the heads of the Services. After the church ceremony, an address was delivered in the first Court by the Chief Justice, Sir Leslie Gibson.
During the year, the work of the Court in its criminal jurisdiction more than doubled that of 1949. In 1949, there were 158 convictions at the Sessions, a notable decrease over the figures for previous years, but in 1950 the number swelled to 402. Robbery, in its various forms, continued to present the most serious problem especially those in which firearms were used to achieve success. Legislation was therefore passed during the year which now makes it an offence punishable with death to use firearms in robberies.
The Lower Courts
There are three magistrate's courts on the Island and three in Kowloon. The latter hear cases from the whole mainland area south of the Kowloon hills. There is also a Justices of the Peace Court composed of 2 unofficial Justices of the Peace sitting together, one of whom is a solicitor. This court, which first began functioning in 1948, has considerably lightened the work of the magistrates in the hearing of cases, no less than 13,698 having been taken by them during 1950.
Civil Jurisdiction in the New Territories is exercised by the District Commissioner and his District Officers, who have powers similar to those of the Supreme Court. Most of the litigation concerns land. The respective District Officers each sit three days a week, on alternate days, as Magistrates at Yuen Long and Taipe. They also hear debts cases.
The Hong Kong and Kowloon Magistracies dealt with 167,976 prosecutions in which there were 154,503 convictions. Of these 45,208 were convictions against juveniles. Juvenile delinquency is not however as serious as might appear from this, since no less than 30,000 of the juvenile convictions were in connexion with offences which may be described as being of a quasi-criminal nature such as hawking without a licence, and obstruction.
70