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12337.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TC.O. 885-

10

ALLY WITHOUT PERMIS COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

PUBLIC RECORD OFF

OF THE

NDON

MY LORD DUKE,

No. 152.

(CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Temple, December 24, 1862. We are honoured with your Grace's commands, signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 29th ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Grace to request that we would furnish your Grace with our opinion on certain questions arising out of a despatch received from the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, of which, with its enclosures, he annexed a copy.

Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to state that by the first section of the Imperial Act 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 57., it was provided that offences committed in certain parts of Africa to the southward of the 25′ parallel of south latitude might be tried in “such "courts as if the same had been committed within the Colony" of the Cape of Good Hope.

The second section authorised the Governor to appoint magistrates to arrest, but not to try, such offenders.

The territory lying between the Kei and Bashee Rivers, to which these papers relate, is to the southward of the 25′ parallel, and therefore within the limits specified in 6 & 7 Will 4. c. 57., and by Letters Patent, dated 13th March 1862, was annexed to the British dependency of British Kaffraria. The Governor was authorised to define the exact limits of the territory thus to be annexed, which he has not done, nor have any steps been taken to act on the Letters Patent, or to publish them in South Africa. No magistrate appears to have been appointed in the Trans-keian territory under the Act of 6 & 7 Will. 4., but a "resident magistrate of the Cape of Good Hope" has been placed there, and has been authorised by the Governor to try "petty offences,' offences (which your Grace is prepared to assume) of a class which might have been tried by a resident magistrate if acting within the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Governor of the Cape of Good Hope is, under the Charter of British Kaffraría, the Governor of that dependency, and he, or in his absence the Lieutenant-Governor, has authority to make laws for British Kaffraria. The enclosed Ordinance is passed by the Lieutenant-Governor, to enable the gaolers of British Kaffraria to keep in The prison persons sentenced by the resident magistrate in the Trans-keian territory. Governor of the Cape also exercises a certain undefined authority in South Africa beyond the limits of British territory as Her Majesty's High Commissioner.

And that your Grace was desirous of learning-

1. Whether in virtue of the above recited Letters Patent the Trans-keian territory forms already part of British Kaffraria, notwithstanding that its limits have not been defined in pursuance of these Letters Patent, nor the Letters Patent in any way published on the spot.

2. Whether the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope could either independently of such annexation, or in virtue of it, authorise a resident magistrate of the Cape of Good Hope to try in this territory offences which such a magistrate could legally try in the Cape of Good Hope.

3. Whether Her Majesty can be advised to confirm the Ordinance of which a copy was enclosed.

Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to state that copies were annexed of the Act 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 57., of the Charter of British Kaffraria, of a Commission appointing the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope to be High Commissioner in the South of Africa; and of the Letters Patent of the 13th March 1862.

In obedience to your Grace's commands we have taken these papers into con- Bideration, and have the honour to

Report

I. That in our opinion the Transkeian territory already forms part of British Kaffraria with the disadvantage (whatever that may practically amount to) of a boundary not formally defined.

II. We think that the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope could not, independently of such annexation, authorise any magistrate to try, within the territory, offences imputed to British subjects as having been committed therein. Independent of express

16278.-40. 95,-9/86.