102 STATION BULLETIN 346 



justices serve the 10 counties and annually hold two or three court 

 sessions in each county. The superior court has original jurisdiction 

 over criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of the municipal and 

 justice courts. Furthermore, it has jurisdiction over all appeals in 

 criminal cases from municipal courts and justices of the peace. s° It 

 can issue writs of mandamus and of quo warranto. 



The county expenditures for superior court for 1939 as reported 

 by the state tax commission follow : 



Jury payrolls . $ 74,920.53 



"State vs." payrolls 38,216.00 



Referees and masters 4,776.59 



Counsel fees 8,875.11 



Stenographer, et cetera 23,368.07 



Clerk of the superior court 45,998.45 



Sheriff and deputies 42,292.64 



Total $238,447.39 



The supreme court is a court of final jurisdiction. Like the su- 

 perior court, it consists of a chief justice and four associate justices, 

 appointed by the governor and council. ^^ There is one general term 

 of the supreme court each year. The justices are required to be in 

 attendance on the first Tuesday of each month except during the 

 months of July and August. ^' The supreme court has general super- 

 vision over all inferior courts and has exclusive authority to issue 

 writs of error, of certiorari, and all other writs and processes to other 

 courts, corporations, and individuals. ^^ The members of the state 

 tax commission are appointees of the supreme court. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



The fiscal system available to local units of government in New 

 Hampshire for obtaining and spending public money is reviewed in 

 Part II, wherein the town functions of property assessment and of 

 tax collection were explained in some detail. Other local services, 

 particularly highways, education, public welfare, public health, and 

 law enforcement, were reserved for the present section. It is the pur- 

 pose of this section to examine these five local services with special 

 reference to their state-local relationships, omitting, however, much 

 of the detail concerned with the local organization for administering 

 these services, a subject reviewed in Part I. This reference to state- 

 local relationships is significant because the machinery for providing 

 public services involves, in most instances, some division of labor be- 

 tween the state and its subdivisions, and usually involves some de- 

 gree of administrative supervision by the state for the actual per- 

 formance of these services. 



In New Hampshire it is the public laws rather than the constitu- 

 tion which gives sanction to local self-government. In some respects 



*» Revised Laws, 1941, Chapter 411. 



»New Hampshire Constitution, Form of Government, Article 46. 



^ Revised Laws, Chapter 359, Section 4. 



^Ibid., Section 2. 



