8680.
No. 92.
(GENERAL.)
།༴།། 「
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
19
C.O.885
Reference :-
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
SIR,
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Royal Courts of Justice, May 3, 1887. WE were honoured with Sir Robert Herbert's letter of the 20th January last stating that he was directed by you to transmit therewith printed copies
of-
(a.) Colonial Courts of Admiralty Bill (as revised).
(b) Memorandum on the original Bill by the Parliamentary Counsel, dated
20th February 1885.
(c.) A similar memorandum on the revised Bill, dated 16th December
1886.
(d.) A separate memorandum as to appeal to the Queen.
That Sir Robert Herbert was to explain that the question of transferring to a Colonial Court the civil jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Court of the Colony was first raised by the Dominion of Canada in 1883, which desired the establishment of one maritime court for Canada to take the place of the Vice-Admiralty Courts of the different Provinces, and of the Maritime Court of Ontario.
That the Law Officers were then consulted by the Admiralty on the subject, L. O. and that it was their opinion that the question was one rather of policy than Opinion, of law. That the matter, therefore, was not subsequently referred to them Jane 1863-
when the wider question arose of transferring civil maritime jurisdiction from all the Vice Admiralty Courts to the Courts of all the Colonies. That the first of the memoranda (b.) was accordingly only transmitted in case we might wish for further information on the general question.
!
That Sir Robert Herbert was, however, specially to invite our attention to the last memorandum (d), and to request that we would be good enough to favour you with our advice upon the question raised at the end of that memo- randum, and as to the form which the proposed legislation ought to take.
We were also honoured with a letter from Mr. Bramston, dated the 25th of February, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us an extract, so far as related to appeals to the Queen in Council from Colonial Courts of Admiralty, from certain remarks of the Admiralty Registrar on the "Colonial Courts of Admiralty Bill," which Mr. Bramston was to request that we would be good enough to take into our consideration, with the papers transmitted with Sir Robert Herbert's letter of the 20th January.
That Mr. Bramston was further to state that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, in transmitting the memorandum of remarks by the Admiralty Registrar, had drawn your attention to a question in respect to the jurisdiction in appeals from any order or decreo of a prize court, viz., that there would appear to be a doubt whether the jurisdiction in prize appeals given by section 5 of the Naval Prize Act, 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 25), to the Judicial Committee still belonged to that Committee, or whether it had been trans- ferred by section 18 of the Judicature Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 66) to the Court of Appeal established by that Act, in which case a further appeal would lie to the House of Lords, and that Mr. Bramston was to request that we would also be good enough to favour you with our opinion upon the question thus raised.
Having takon all the papers into our consideration, we have the honour to
Report
That in dealing with this matter some difficult questions of policy arise, but upon the questions raised at the end of the memorandum of the 16th December 1886, if any alteration is to be made, we are of opinion that the better course will be to insert in the proposed Bill an express power of appeal
A 50069.-17. 25.-5/87.