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7. The Royal Commission in 1909 gave much attention to the Magistracy. There were at that time 11 District Magistrates, excluding the Stipendiary Magistrates engaged in the administra- tion of the Labour Law; three were assigned to Port Louis, two to the combined districts of Plaines Wilhems and Black River, and one to each of the remaining six districts. The Commission thought this number to be excessive," having regard to the size and popula- tion of the island, to the ready access to the various districts afforded by the railway, to the number of cases dealt with and the hours of work," and proposed a reduction to nine, one of whom should be exclusively concerned with civil work. Although the Commission's full scheme was not carried out, a reduction to eight has been effected; there are now only two Magistrates at Port Louis, the two northern districts have been combined (though there are still two court-houses, each with its complement of clerks), Black River is somewhat inconveniently attached to Moka, and Savanne to Curepipe. It has been objected that the amalgamation of districts is not economical, as extra charges are incurred on the service of summonses, but the Procureur General has assured us that in the case of the amalgamation of the two northern districts this objection has not been proved in practice.

8. Despite the reduction which has been effected since 1909 there is no doubt that the old district system, which is now even more inappropriate to modern communications, is still reflected by an excessive staff. The short working hours of the Magistrates has been a common theme in the evidence given to us, and we have ourselves seen in our inspection of the small courts of Mapou (northern districts), Mahebourg (Grand Port), and Moka that their clerks can seldom do more than four hours' work a day; even the attendance registers (which, as we saw, are only made up at irregular intervals) do not pretend that any clerk remains in his office after half-past three. The reason is not that they neglect their duties, for the work which we have seen has been carefully done, but that there is not enough work to do. At the smaller courts the Magistrates are not continuously in session, and the case work is exceedingly light; at Moka, for instance, there had been only 21 civil cases in the last seven months, 305 cases for the recovery of Crown debts, usually of very small amounts, and 611 criminal cases in 10 months, for the most part petty charges of vention" of some sanitary or forest regulation. The clerical work involved in these cases, even when supplemented by the duty of keeping a copy, in manuscript, of the Magistrate's, letters to the Procureur General, and the duty of registering a few hundred births and deaths (Civil Status), cannot possibly provide full time employ- ment for three, or even two, clerks. This is the normal strength of a small court, and in addition there is an Interpreter, whose services in present conditions can very seldom be required.

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Our recommendations will still further reduce the work. (1) We have proposed that one of the Judges should sit in regular session in place of the benches of three Magistrates. (2) If, as we further propose, the owners of houses below Rs.1,000 in value are exempted from house tax, and night-soil fees and fountain rates are no longer levied, the great bulk of the proceedings for the (3) We recommend that in recovery of Crown debts will cease. the rural areas Civil Status work should be generally entrusted either to Deputy Postmasters or to the dispensers, who in most of the villages have ample time for this purpose; the Civil Status work of the Magistrates' clerks would then be confined to entries from the larger centres; the work is not heavy enough now for a whole-time clerk, and would thus be reduced to very few entries in the course of a working week.

9. The Procureur General was prepared to agree that it was possible to dispense with a Magistrate for Moka and Black River, apart from these special proposals for reducing the work of the Courts, and we therefore have no hesitation in recommending that one post of Magistrate should be abolished. The Court-house of Moka should be closed; cases from the western part of Moka should be heard at Port Louis, which is only half an hour's journey by omnibus; cases from the eastern part of the district should be heard at Flacq. Black River cases should similarly be divided between Curepipe and Port Louis, and the Court-house should be closed. Similarly in the northern districts there should only be a single Court-house at Mapou. We can see no reason for maintaining seven clerks costing Rs.22,800 at the Court-houses of Pample- mousses, Black River, and Moka when the volume of work is so small and when the Magistrates can serve these districts without inconvenience from Mapou, Port Louis, and Curepipe; there cannot be any comparable addition to the cost of summoning witnesses, etc. On the other hand it will still be necessary to maintain separate Courts at Mahebourg and Souillac, for topographical reasons; but the one Magistrate should be responsible for both these districts, and the staff should be reduced. We have examined the work of the clerks at Mahebourg and consider that the present staff is disproportionally large; the Magistrate should have one third-class clerk and one Interpreter, both of whom should at accompany him whether he is in session at Mahebourg or Souillac, and there should be one resident fourth-class clerk at each Court:

10. We recommend that the Interpreters, of whom there should be one attached to each District Magistrate, should be brought on to the general clerical list and should be required to do ordinary clerical work at the Courts in addition to acting as Interpreters; but they should receive a small allowance for the special qualifica- tion of Interpreter. Three sixth-class clerks at Port Louis, Rose

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Reference -

C.O.882/12

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