Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/479

---

.ItTDICATURE OP VAN raEMEN*8 LAND. 451 cooimissioii applicable only to Port Phillip ; and Bates opened no conrti eivil or criminaL The Van Diemen's Land Courts existed nnder the same letters patent as those extant in New South Wales. The Criminal Court and the Civil Court of the continent might sit in the island, hut never Bat there. Litigants were eoni pelted to Keek justice ill Sydney or go without it. Doubts were raised as to the power to establish courts in Van Diemen's Land at a!L When the statute (27 Geo. IIL, cap. 2) was passed to enable L the Crown to constitute a Court of Criminal Judicature at H Sydney, Bass's Straits were unknown, and the ]:»ower seemed ^limited to *'the eastern eoast of New South Wales or some one or other of the islands adjacent.'* Van Dienien's Land ^was not on the east coast, and was adjacent to the south Bcoast. Necessity overruled doubt. A community in which a man could not be executeil, conld not be supposed to exist. » Under a new Charter of Justice issued in 1811 provision was made for a Lt.-Goveraor's Court and a Deputy Judge- Advocate in the island : and Macquarie sent Abbott (late of ^^^_ the New South Wales (!orps) to act in that capacity- He Ik was empowered with two assesstu-s chosen l>y the (Tovernor Bio decide causes not exceeding £oO, and until he arrived in Hl815 there had been *'no authority for the trial or determi- ^natio]! of civil causes in the settlement."^ He opened his court in IHK), The limited jurisdiction was found inade- quate. A Yoyage to Sydiu3y was costly, and consumed time. Means of communication were rare. The scope of Abbott's court waSy by common consent, extended. The colonists broke up their claims, and took several securities not -exceeding i'50. Though actions were thus multiplied they were decided on the spot. There was no appeal from Abbott's court, and he inided himself upon adminiatering law according to what was right without care about techni- cality. He listened, lujwever, with complacence, to professional men. We are told that his decisions generally commanded respect. He permitted convict attorneys U ai^pear before him '* merely in virtue of the authority given to them by their employers/' **As late as November 18*21 no free professional person had arrived at Hobart Town to " Bigge*8 Beport. Judicial EstabliBlimetiU. Rovxa^ ol CfttOTftWtta.^tu'^xA, .Feb. 1823. i>d2