Procedure

in our Supreme Court, which is unnecessarily cumbrous, and the expenses are generally out of proportion to the interests involved. The result is that the public in all parts of the colony have a dread of litigation, and instead of readily re- page 4 sorting to this Court to have their grievances redressed, they prefer submitting their disputes to arbitration or reducing their claims so as to bring them within the jurisdiction of the lower courts. The remarks of Herbert Spencer in referring to the administration of justice in England in his interesting work on "Social Statics," may, with little modification, be applied to the judicial system in force in this colony. He states "that we, the independent, determined, self-ruling English should daily behold the giant abominations of our judicial system, and yet do nothing to rectify them, is really quite incomprehensible. It is not as though the facts were disputed. All men are agreed upon them. The dangers of law are proverbial. * * * This gentleman has been cheated out of half his property, but dare not attempt to recover it for fear of losing more, whilst his less prudent companion can parallel the experience of him who said that he had only twice been on the verge of ruin : once when he had lost a law suit, and once when he had gained one." A radical reform in the present system of administering justice is much needed, otherwise the