ENG-1954 — Page 203

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954

The Lower Courts

There are four magistrate's courts on the Island and four in Kowloon. The latter hear cases from the whole mainland area south of the Kowloon hills. Magisterial duties in the New Territories, hitherto undertaken by the District Officers, were handed over to the Judiciary during the course of the year. Courts sit both at Taipo and Pingshan on different days with one Magistrate assigned to attend to both. There is also a Justices of the Peace Court composed of two unofficial Justices of the Peace sitting together five afternoons a week, one of whom is usually a solicitor. This Court functions in the Hong Kong Magistracy.

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The work done by the Magistracies in the year under review again shows an increase over previous years. The total number of prosecutions and sum- monses came to 276,577 as against 266,819 in 1953. very substantial portion of this total is comprised of such offences as hawking without a licence and breaches against traffic regulations. As the Acting Chief Justice explained in his speech at the ceremonial opening of the Assizes in January, these offences, which though individually are not serious are in total one of the Colony's major problems. It must be noted also that there has been an increase in the number of drug cases.

Another unhappy feature of the figures supplied by the Magistracies is the increase in the number of juvenile offences. In 1953, there were 29,068 convic- tions against juveniles while in 1954 the total was 39,700. However, an analysis of the figures relating to these juveniles reveals that most of the charges brought against them were in connexion with minor offences such as hawking and obstruction.

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