detrimental to the interests of
as proving private individuals.__
Mour
Inclosure No2 I will serve to acquaint Lordship that, under the Rules at-present in force, the Court sits for the hearing and trial of Civil suits at Vict Prins only four times in the year, viz: for 15 days during each of the months of February, April, June, and December, and that between the 15th June and the 12th December, a period of 5 months and a half, no case is heard or determined, where the amount in dispute exceeds 100 Dollars or about £20. For the disposal of minor cases.
where the amount is under 100 Dollars, it was
the
practice of the late Acting Chief Justice to hold
a
Court in each successive month.
Chief-Justiciary Jurisdiction
Criminal Sessions
are now held five
times in each year; the Court being engaged on an average not more than 4 or 5 days on each occasion. The longest interval between these Sessions is from about the 20th of April to the 15th of July, a period of two months and twenty-five days.
In Enclosure N°2 the Criminal Session is described as closing at the end of the month; the business is usually performed in the number of days above mentioned, I have assumed its close to be on the 20th, instead of the 30th of the month.
The above is the course at present-pursued, and I confess, it appears to me one not favourable to the interests of the Colony, and certainly not calculated to induce Traders to resort to it....
In all mercantile Communities differences of opinion will arise which can only be adjusted by the Law; and if the Population of Hongkong were settled and stationary, the existing system might possibly be found to answer... It is on the contrary, however, more migratory and fluctuating, than perhaps in any other of Her Majesty's Colonies; and it