THE COURTS, POLICE, PRISONS AND RECORDS
199
Justices is usually a solicitor. During the year seventeen solicitors and forty four lay Justices served in this Court.
The Magistrates' Courts continued to have a busy year with five courts functioning on Hong Kong Island, five in Kowloon and one in the New Territories. It will be seen from the table of figures below that once again in Kowloon the courts dealt with sub- stantially more cases than the Hong Kong courts.
Statistics of work in the Magistracies are as follows:
Total number of summary matters
Hong Kong Kowloon
New Territories
Total
(charges, summonses and applica- tions, etc.)...
73,782
121,920
9,451
205,153
Total number of defendants (adult
and juvenile)
77,136
119,298
10,199 206.633
Total number of defendants con-
victed-(adult and juvenile)
72,935
111,112
9,479
193,526
Total number of adult defendants
73,337
113,327
10,151
196,815
Total number of adult defendants
convicted
69,185
105,152
9,436
183.773
Total number of juvenile defendants
3,799
5,971
48
-9,818
Total number of juvenile defendants
convicted
...
...
3,750
5,960
43
9,753
Total number of Charge Sheets
issued
31,915
69,582
Total number of summonses issued
40,945
3,782 105,279
52,105 5,869 98,919
In the Tenancy Tribunal, the number of applications made for determination of rent payable, or for approval of agreed rental in excess of the permitted rent totalled 1,121 as against 1,146 for 1957. The number of exemption cases filed was one less than for 1957, the figures for the past four years being 639 for 1955, 1,004 for 1956, 1,410 for 1957 and 1,409 for 1958. These applications are brought under the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, under which an applicant, wishing to obtain exemption from the Ordinance in respect of certain buildings, brings pro- ceedings before a tribunal for that purpose. These tribunals consist of a president (who has legal qualifications) and two lay members chosen from a panel appointed by the Chief Justice. During the year no less than 211 of these lay members rendered valuable service on the tribunals.