CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
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Financial Secretary, the Director of Public Works and all unofficial members of the Legislative Council, considers requests for supple- mentary provision of funds and meets fortnightly in private.
JUDICIARY
Under powers conferred on the Governor by the Supreme Court Ordinance, the Chief Justice, the Senior Puisne Judge and the puisne judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by Letters Patent issued under the Public Seal by the Governor on instructions from the sovereign given through, and on the recommendation of, the Secretary of State; district judges and magistrates are appointed by the Governor by instrument under the Public Seal or by warrant. The qualifications of puisne judges are prescribed in the Supreme Court Ordinance and those of district judges in the District Court Ordinance.
The function of the Judiciary is to try all prosecutions and to determine civil disputes, whether between individuals or between individuals and the Government. The principle of English consti- tutional law, that, in the performance of their judicial acts, members of the Judiciary are completely independent of the executive and legislative organs of the Government, is as fundamental in Hong Kong as it is in most other countries of the Commonwealth. The English common law and the rules of equity are in force in Hong Kong, so far as they may be applicable to local circumstances. English Acts of Parliament are in force in the Colony only if applied to Hong Kong by the Application of English Law Ordinance or by their own terms or by an Order in Council. The locally enacted laws of the Colony are consolidated and revised periodically; the last edition of them was published in loose leaf form in 1967.
The courts of justice in Hong Kong are the Full Court, the Supreme Court, the District Court, the Magistrates Courts, the Coroners Courts and the Tenancy Tribunal. In 1969, the Judiciary had posts for the Chief Justice, the Senior Puisne Judge, six puisne judges, eight district judges, 36 magistrates, two Coroners and a President of the Tenancy Tribunal. District judges sit in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. Magistrates sit at the Central, Causeway Bay and Western Magistracies on Hong Kong Island, and at the South Kowloon, North Kowloon, Fanling,