ORDINANCE No. 1 of 1849.
Petty Sessions Court.
other imprisonment that may have been awarded, the term of six calendar months in the whole; or such Magistrate or Court may in his or its discretion levy the amount and costs by distress on the goods and chattels of the offender.
9. And be it further ordained and declared, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Court, during the trial of any case under this Ordinance, or at any time before conviction, to commit the prisoner to stand his or her trial before the Supreme Court, should it appear that the case would be properly visited with a heavier punishment than such Court of Petty Sessions could award, and that the law administered in the said Supreme Court applies such heavier punishment; or for any other reasonable cause.
10. And be it further enacted and ordained, that it shall be lawful and competent for the said Court of Petty Sessions, or for any Magistrate of Police thereto duly authorized by the Governor of this Colony, to try and determine in a summary manner, cases and differences between master and servant, and relating to wages, where the pecuniary question for decision shall not exceed the sum of fifty dollars; and all dispute and differences between party and party touching any matter of debt or promise; injury to the person or property, or other matter, where the debt or damages sought to be recovered shall not exceed the said sum of fifty dollars; except the matter in question shall relate to the title of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or to the taking of any duty payable to Her Majesty, or to any fee of office or other matter where rights in future might be bound, or to any general right or duty; Provided also, that nothing herein contained relating to the said civil jurisdiction aforesaid shall extend to any debt being the disputed balance of any unsettled account originally exceeding fifty dollars, nor to any debt or supposed debt, for any money or thing won or alleged to have been won at or by means of any horse-race, cock-match, wager or any kind of chance, gaming, or play, or to any debt for which there has not been a contract, acknowledgment, undertaking, or promise to pay within three years before the taking out of the summons: And that such Court of Petty Sessions or Police Magistrate so authorized may examine the plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or defendants, vivâ voce on their several corporal oaths, and may make an order in writing for the payment of such wages, or debt or damages aforesaid, and any costs incurred by the proceeding, before the said Court or Magistrate, payable either on demand or by instalments, as shall seem advisable, or as the case may be, an order for the dismissal of the case with or without costs. And that in the event of any such order not being complied with it shall be lawful for the Chief or presiding Magistrate of the said Court, or for the Police Magistrate authorized as aforesaid, to issue a precept to some known bailiff of the Colony, or other discreet person or persons, to levy the sum so ordered to be paid by a sale of the goods and chattels of the defendant or defendants or other party; or in case it shall appear from the return to the precept, by the statement of the defendant, or otherwise, that the defendant or other party has no goods or chattels whereon to levy, the Court or Magistrate having issued the said precept may order that the said defendant or other party be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three.
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Power to commit offenders before conviction to stand their trial before the Supreme Court.
Jurisdiction in wages and in certain other civil cases.