ADMrVTSTRATTON OF J IT STICK, 237 



respecting' disputed landed property, or boundaries, 

 are the means of preventing much ruinous litigation, 

 A» a provincial Magistrate, however, he lalwrs under 

 the disadvantage of not having any aid at hnnd 

 in those numerous cases where the Law re- 

 quires two Justices to sit. Owing to this circuit 

 stance, many uatives suhmit to injury and loss ra- 

 ther than proceed to the Island. Sir Ralph Rice, 

 when Recorder, was so prepossessed with the advan- 

 tages to I>e gained to the natives there, by an exten- 

 sion of judicial authority, at the lime when Mr. 

 Maingy was its able and enlightened Superintendent, 

 but who had not the power of a Justice of the Peace— 

 since given to his successor — that he expressed it as 

 his opinion that this gentleman could not have too 

 much power, if legally given, ll is probable that 

 this remark was chiefly elicited more by a consideration 

 of the peculiar character, the prejudices and locality 

 of the population, than by any reference to its num- 

 bers, which did not then much exceed one-third part 

 of what the population now amounts to. 



The Court of Requests cannot decide cases where 

 the debt exceeds thirty-two Spanish dollars, The li- 

 mitation is not apparently considered as any boon by 

 the native population, especially by that portion of it 

 situated in the distant parts of Province VVellesley. 

 This may perhaps, as regards the latter, be fairly in- 

 ferred from the fact that since the regular Court of 

 Requests began to act, which is upwards of a year 

 ago, there has not l>een one appeal made from t hence 

 to the higher Court. Long he lore the regular Court 

 was. established, a Court of Arbitration, over which 

 the Assistant Resident presided, settled all disputes 

 about debts. Appeals may be made from the deci- 

 sions ol individual or joint Magistrates to the Court 

 of Quarter Sessions, or to the Court of Judicature. 



