New Setting
p. 50 · Read in the full issue
Fiji Supreme Court in a New Setting
r[E Supreme Court of Fiji held its first sitting in the'new Courthouse in Suva in June. The Chief Jus tice (Sir Owen Corrie) presided: leading officials assisted; and the following members of the Bar in Fiji were pre sent: The Attorney General (Mr. E. E.
Jenkins), Sir Henry Scott, K.C., Mr.
Robert Crompton, K.C., Messrs. R. A.
Crompton, W. Davidson, S. H. Ellis, G.
F. Grahame, S. Hasan, D. M. N. Mc- Farlane, Robert Munro, J. S. M, Park, and H. M. Scott.
An interesting account of the history of the Supreme Court in Fiji was given by Sir Henry Scott, while Mr. Cromp ton recalled some amusing memories of Court sittings and conditions.
The Chief Justice, after formal ac knowledgments, described in humorous vein, some of the strange Courts he had sat in, in various parts of the Empire.
One was in a small room over the stables of the mounted police, and while the utmost efforts were made to keep the stables clean, proceedings were conducted in what could only be described as a horsey atmosphere. Another Court-room had a large hole in the roof, and it did not make it any easier for him to know that the damage had probably been caus ed by his own battery. One Court in which he sat was in the local theatre, where the judges took their place be fore the footlights. They dealt with a most interesting murder case and they played for three days to crowded houses, and on the whole, he believed, gave complete satisfaction. On rising for lunch on the first day they realised that there was a drop-scene behind them, it represented the interior of a dungeon.
A change was asked for, and after lunch they had a garden scene. He was told that if the owners had thought a death sentence was going to be passed, they would have put up the dungeon scene.
Mr. P. N. Johnston, .of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., Ltd., Sydney, has been transferred to Penang, Fiji.
Pastor W. J. Westerman returned to Australia by the “Wanganella” from New Zealand at the end of July, after visiting Seventh Day Adventist Mission stations in Tonga and Samoa.