In the English Act, the wrongdoer is brought before the Magistrate by a notice stating that unless possession is given within seven clear days from service the owner will apply to the Magistrate for a warrant of ejectment. It has been thought better that, in this Ordinance, a summons should be served, which is much more likely to be attended to than any notice given to persons of the class affected by the Ordinance.
The provisions of the English Act were extended, by 15 and 16 Vict. c. 70 s. 18, to certain encroachments. It is thought a further extension might be made in this Colony, and that the provisions of the local Ordinance might fairly be made to apply to certain illegal encroachments and inclosures of small value; for the execution of the warrant can be stayed if the defendant is willing to give a bond to sue the complainant, and the wrongful obtaining of a warrant is made a trespass, as in England.
As nearly all the land held from the Crown in this Colony is of leasehold tenure some slight modifications have been made in the interpretation clause.
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Section 6 deals with illegal encroachments and inclosures. The rest of the Ordinance is from the English Act 1 & 2 Vict. c 74, with slight verbal modifications to meet local requirements. $240 is nearly equivalent to £20 and has the advantage of being divisible by 12, and, in this Colony, rent is usually payable at so much a month.
(Sd.) W. Meigh Goodman,
Attorney General.