| COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO |
I
16
LAWS IN FORCE IN THE COLONIES AS TO TRESPASS,
AND ALSO AS TO PRESERVATION OF GAME.
17
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference :-
3PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
WEAT INDIAN COLONIES.
No. 1
No. E.
18 Vict. c 22.
25 Viet e. 16.
26 Vict. 2 SPAR c. 6.
WEST INDIAN COLONIES.
No. 7.
JAMAICA.
[Not received.]
No. 8.
BRITISH HONDURAS,
COPY of a DESPATCH from Lieutenant-Governor CAIRNS to the Officer
Administering the Government of Jamaica,
(No. 158) SIR,
Government House, Belize, 16th September, 1870.
The Act
In compliance with the instructions contained in the Circular Despatch, dated the 2nd August last, from his Lordship the Secretary of State, I have the honour to forward copies of the enactments in force in this Colony relating to trespass. In order of date, they are the Act 18 Vict. e. 22, which, by section 7, declares all laws of universal application, relating to .. the possession of houses or lands, and trespasses or rights of action in respect thereof.. to be laws of this settlement.“ 25 Vict. e. 16, relates to enclosed or cultivated lands, and is criminal in its nature, as the penalties imposed are directed to be paid into the public chest, and not by way of compensation to the proprietor or occupier of the land; but this, as the Acting Attorney- General has pointed out, does not take away the Common Law right to bring an action for trespass. The Act 26 Vict., sess. 2, c. 6, provides for trespass on personal property. but is restricted to “beasts and boats;" of the former of which a very limited definition is given in the first clause.
2. With regard to the Preservation of Game, no local enactment has ever been passed with that object, and I do not think that the law of England relating thereto can be held to be applicable to a Colony in the condition of Honduras, there heing yet no attempt or desire to preserve any kind of game on the part of the owners or occupiers of the land, or to interfere with the pursuit of it, conditionally, of course, on standing crops and other property being uninjured by proceedings taken in such pursuit,
His Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government of Jamaica.
&c.
&c
&c.
(Signed)
I have, &c.,
W. W. CAIRNS.
Enclosures in No. 8.
18 VICTORIA, Cap. XXII.
AN ACT to declare the Laws in force in this Settlement. [Passed the Legislature, February 7th, 1855. Received the Royal Assent; and proclaimed, March 8th, 1856.]
WHEREAS, after the first establishment of this settlement, and thenceforward to the pass- ing of the Act "to amend the system of Government of British Honduras," which gave a new legislative constitution thereto, the inhabitants of the settlement, at public meetings from time to time assembled, and the executive magistrates in the magisterial courts, made and passed various rules, orders, resolutions and enactments adapted to the wants of the inhabitants, and which have always been regarded and acted on as the laws of the settlement, and as regulating the practice of the courts; and such rules, orders, resolu- tions and enactments have been preserved and recorded in the Record Office of this settlement:
And whereas many of the said rules and resolutions are now considered obsolete by disuse, and others have been from time to time altered, superseded or repealed, by similar rules, resolutions or enactments, or by proclamation by Her Majesty's Super- intendent, but many of them remained in force at the time of the passing of the herein- before mentioned Act for amending the system of Government, and have since been
acted on:
And whereas, it is desirable that such of the said rules, resolutions and enactments as so continue to be acted upon in this settlement, and in the courts thereof, should be declared to be continuing rules and laws thereof, so far as they are at present used and continued therein:
Be it therefore enacted, by Her Majesty's Superintendent, By and with the advice and consent of the Assembly, as follows:
WEST INDIAN COLONIES.
Enclosure, in
No. F.
Bules and
orters of court
to new rules.
I. That all rules, orders or resolutions made for the regulation and practice of the courts of this settlement, in so far as the same have not hitherto been altered, varied, or discontinued by any subsequent rule and practice of such courts, and in so far as the fired, subject same are still continued to be used in the same courts, shall be and continue rules thereof, subject to any future alterations, in practice or otherwise, that may be made by any Act of this settlement, or by any rules of the said courts, or any constituted in lieu thereof, in pursuance of any such Act; and all other such rules for regulating the practice of the courts not continuing in present use as aforesaid shall be and are hereby declared to be abrogated.
Resolatione,
II. That all rules, orders, and resolutions regulating locations of logwood and mahogany works, and allotments of land shall, in respect of all locations and allotments & gluting original i "in this settlement to appropriated thereunder prior to the practice of making "grants which began in the year One thousand eight hundred and seventeen, be and they are hereby declared valid and binding, in so far as they relate to and establish titles to such locations and allotments, where the titles to such locations and allotments have been recorded according to the laws of location of this settlement; and that all such rules, and "bound- orders, and resolutions as regulate the measurement and boundaries of such locations and res allotments shall still continue to regulate the same, as well with reference to the continued. boundaries of such locations and allotments of contiguous locations" as with reference to contiguous "grants," in the absence of any more express definition of such boundaries, or of any other law for the better regulation thereof.
firmed and
HI. That for quicting possessions of all such original locations, so formed in pur- suance of those rules, orders and resolutions, and before the practice of making “grants," from 1840. [ and for preventing disputes respecting the same, every person now in possession of any location such original location, either as being the first occupant or appropriator thereof, or as claiming by devise, descent or purchase from such original occupant or appropriator, and who shall, by himself or the person through whom he claims, have been in quiet and undisturbed possession thereof since the first day of January, One thousand eight hundred and forty, shall have good right to such possession as against any grantee or other person whomsoever, excepting only infants and other persons under disability, der disdainty whose rights are hereby protected.
Prevent
ynir tel.
Peron 10-
protecte!
IV. That all other rules, orders, regulations and enactinents of magistrates or of public meetings, of a permanent and municipal character, or intended as general laws of t the settlement, which have not been revoked, altered, repealed, or superseded by any mumeijai
Exuding in
general
1)