JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 203 



adapted to its destination, the soil being poor and barren and 

 the supply of water scanty. 



Flowers and ornamental shrubs are extensively cultivated; 

 and lately, I am glad to say, the cultivation and amelioration 

 of fruit-trees by selection and grafting has been successfully 

 attempted. Nurseries have been established of coffee and lime 

 plants, also of several varieties of sugar-cane; the latter, however, 

 with only partial success, on account of the poverty of the soil. 

 I must, in fairness, acknowledge that our present botanist, 

 Mr. Prestoe, has turned to the best account the scanty resources 

 thus afforded. I am under the impression that by damming one 

 or two small gullies in the grounds, a sufficient supply of water 

 could be obtained for gardening and other agricultural pur- 

 poses. 



Botanist, £300 ; clerk and two gardeners, £455 : total £755. 

 Examiner of animals, £450. 



Printing. — Printer, £400 ; foreman, £200 ; compositors, 

 binders, £505; other employes, £772; binding, repairs, &c, 

 £200: total, £2,077. 



Judicial Department. — I have already stated that the 

 "illustrious cabildo/' or, more properly speaking, the "alcades 

 in ordinary/'' were vested with judiciary powers, which they 

 exercised with the assistance of a lawyer, and within very 

 narrow limits, since the majority of cases were decided by 

 arbitration, each party choosing a friend as arbitrator ; in case 

 these did not come to an agreement, they chose an umpire, who 

 sided with either one or the other. 



Immediately after the capture of the island, Mr. J. Nihell, a 

 resident, was appointed Chief Justice, deciding all cases according 

 to his conscience. In 1800, Governor Picton established the 

 "Court of Consulado ; " in 1807, Governor Hislop abolished 

 this court and re-appointed Mr. J. Nihell chief judge. In 1808, 

 however, the Colonial Office sent out Judge Smith to Trinidad, 

 with authority over all the tribunals of the island ; he was also 

 empowered to hear appeals from his own decisions. 



In the year 1814, John Bigge, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, arrived 

 in Trinidad as Chief Justice in both civil and criminal matters, 

 and associated to himself in criminal matters Dr. Bamon Garcia, 

 the assessor to their honours the alcades. Appeals were allowed 

 from his decisions to the Governor, as judge of the Court of 



