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27 Vic. c. 3.

PREAMBLE.

A wife may apply to the

Police Magis

trate for an order of maintenance for

herself and

children in

PART II.

CLASS VI.

COURT OF DIVORCE AND MATRIMONIAL CAUSES. 27 Vic. c. 3. An Act to amend the Act for Establishing a Court for hearing and deciding Cases of Divorce and other Matrimonial Causes, in the Bahama Islands, and for other purposes. (Assented to 30th March, 1864.)

WHE

HEREAS, it is expedient to provide a summary mode by which wives who have been deserted by their husbands and left without means of support may obtain maintenance; May it &c.:

I. A wife deserted by her husband may, at any time after such desertion, apply to a Police Magistrate for an order of maintenance, and such Magistrate, if satisfied by proof upon oath made before him, of the fact of such desertion, and that the same was without reasonable cause, and that the husband has refused or neglected to make the wife a proper allowance, according to his circumstances, for her maintenance or the maintenance of herself cases of deser- and any child or children of the marriage, which he may have left with her unprovided for, shall make an order on the husband requiring him to allow and pay to his wife for her maintenance, or the maintenance of herself and children, as the case may be, such sum of money, either weekly, or otherwise, as the Magistrate in his discretion shall think a proper allowance, according to the circumstances of the husband, to be made and paid by him.

tion.

tenance.

Husband may II. That the husband shall have a right, within twenty days appeal against after the making of any such order, to appeal therefrom to the order of main- Judge Ordinary of the Court of Divorce, who shall hear every appeal in a summary way, and shall make such order either affirming, rescinding, altering or modifying the decision of the Police Magistrate as to such Judge Ordinary shall appear right, and the decision of the Judge Ordinary in any such case of appeal shall be final.

Proceedings

under this Act to be governed by 12 Vic. c. 10.

Husband and

Desertion to

III. That the proceedings before Magistrates under this Act shall be governed by the provisions of the Act of 12 Vict. c. 10, as well in enforcing orders made, as in investigating complaints preferred, and the proceedings before the Judge Ordinary shall be regulated by such rules as the said Judge may from time to time make and enact for the purpose.

IV. That in all proceedings under this Act the parties, husband wife witnesses. and wife, shall be competent witnesses for both parties. V. That the word "desertion," as used in this Act, shall be construed to mean any wilful separation on the part of the husseparation for band from the wife extending over any period not less than three

mean wilful

not less than

three months.

months.

PART II.

CLASS VII.

COUNSEL, ATTORNIES AND NOTARIES.

No Acts coming within this Class have been passed since the Compilation of the Laws in 1862.

PART II.

CLASS VIII.

JURIES.

26 Vic. c. 6. An Act for the better Regulation of Juries.

(Assented to May 26th, 1863.)

I. THAT every male inhabitant of the Island of New Provi- Qualification dence, between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years (except as of Jurors. hereinafter excepted), who shall be seised and possessed in fee simple, fee tail, or for life, of landed estate within these Islands, of the value of not less than fifty pounds, or who shall be a householder, and inhabiting as sole tenant upon any improved lot of land in the said Island of New Providence, of the value of not less than one hundred pounds, shall be qualified, and except exempted by this Act shall be liable to serve on Juries, for the trial of issues joined in any of the Courts of Law at Nassau, both civil and criminal, and shall also be qualified and liable to serve upon all inquests or inquiries to be taken or made by or before any of the said Courts, by virtue of any writ of inquiry, or by or before any commissioners appointed under the Great Seal of these Islands.

II. That the following persons only shall be exempted from Persons serving on Juries under this Act, any law, usage, or custom to the exempt from contrary, notwithstanding, that is to say:

Officers of the Army and Navy, and of the several departments appertaining or attached to either of such services, doing duty within these Islands, and the persons employed in such departments; Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and Members of the House of Assembly, Ministers of Religion who follow no secular calling other than that of Schoolmaster, Barristers, Counsellors, Attornies, Proctors, and Solicitors at Law in actual practice and their Clerks or Apprentices, Physicians and Surgeons in actual practice, the Colonial Secretary for the time being and the Officers of his Department, the Officers of the Revenue Department, the Officers of the Public Bank, the Registrar of Records and his Clerk, the Surveyor General and Civil Engineer and his Clerk, the Postmaster, the Provost Marshal, the Police Magistrate of the Colony, the Clerk of the Crown and Prothonotary of the General Court, the Crier of the General Court, the Constables attending the General Court, the Bailiff of the Court of Common Pleas, the Clerk in the

serving on Juries.

26 Vic. c. 6. New Providence Police Office, the Members of the Police Force, the Officers of the Nassau Prison, the Harbour Master and all Branch Pilots of the Bars of New Providence, and all Public Schoolmasters: Provided that Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and Members of the House of Assembly shall not be exempt from serving on special Juries except when the Legislature is in session.

Persons dis

III. That no person not being a natural-born subject of the qualified from Crown, or a foreigner duly authorized, is or shall be qualified to serving on serve on Juries under this Act, except only in the cases hereinJuries. after expressly provided for; and no man who hath or shall be attainted for any treason or felony or convicted of any crime that is infamous, unless he shall have obtained a free pardon, or any lunatic or idiot, nor any person who cannot read and write in the English language, is or shall be qualified to serve on Juries under this Act; Provided however, that after verdict in any cause, criminal or civil, the verdict shall not be set aside, or avoided by reason of any disqualification as aforesaid, in any juror or jurors, not previously challenged or objected to on account of such disqualification.

Justices of the

General Court
to issue pre-
cept requiring
prepared list of
qualified
Jurors.

Duty of persons appointed after receipt of such precept.

*Duty of Clerk of the Crown

IV. That the Justices of the General Court shall, in Easter Term in every year, cause a precept to be issued, under the seal of the said Court, directed to such duly qualified person or persons, as such Justices may select for the purpose, requiring such person or persons to prepare, make out and return to the office of the Clerk of the Crown, on or before the first day of June then next ensuing, a true list or lists of all persons residing within the Island of New Providence qualified or liable to serve as Jurors under this Act; Provided always, that if, from any cause whatsoever, any such list shall not be made out and returned, within the time aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the Justices aforesaid, to extend the time for making such return to any period not extending beyond the first day of July, and, if necessary, to appoint any other person or persons to make out such list.

V. That the person or persons to whom such precept shall be directed, shall, as soon as possible after the receipt thereof, prepare and make out in alphabetical order, according to the form in the schedule to this Act annexed, marked A, a true list of all persons qualified and liable under this Act to serve as Jurors, and shall, on the completion of such list, deliver the same to the Clerk of the Crown, at his office in Nassau, who is hereby authorized and required to administer to the person or persons making such return, an oath, that he or they have truly and impartially set down in the said list the names of all persons residing in the Island of New Providence, qualified and liable as aforesaid to serve on Juries under this Act.

VI. That the Clerk of the Crown shall, within three weeks after the receipt of any such annual list, record the same in a after receipt of book to be called the Jurors' Book, which book shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection, without payment of any fee, of any inhabitant of the Island of New Providence who may be desirous of inspecting the same.

list.

The presiding Justice may strike off the names of un

VII. That if the name of any man not qualified, or not liable to serve on juries as aforesaid, is inserted in any such list of Jurors, or Jurors' Book, it shall be lawful for the presiding Justices or

Justice of the General Court, at any time during the sitting of the 26 Vic. c. 6. said Court, upon satisfactory proof being made of the want of qualification or non-liability of such person, to cause his name to qualified, or be struck out of such list of Jurors, or Jurors' Book, and also to insert the strike thereout the names of men disabled by deafness, blindness, names of any or other permanent infirmity of body, from serving on Juries; and qualified it shall be also lawful for such Justices or Justice, as aforesaid, to insert in such list the names of every man omitted thereout, upon proof being made to the satisfaction of such Justices or Justice, of his proper qualification.

persons.

VIII. That the Clerk of the Crown, immediately after entering Duty of the the general list of the Jurors, in the Jurors' Book, as before di- Clerk of the rected, shall cause the names of the whole of the Jurors therein Crown. contained to be written on separate and distinct pieces of parchment, or paper, of equal size, which he shall roll, as nearly as may be in the same manner, and put into the division number one, of the Jury Box, belonging to the General Court of these Islands, which box shall have two locks and keys of different wards, one of which keys shall be kept by the Chief Justice, or other presiding Justice of the said Court, and the other by the Clerk of the Crown; and shall be and remain in the office of the said Clerk of the Crown and shall not be opened, or any Jury drawn therefrom, except as directed by this Act.

the first Tues

IX. That the first Tuesdays of January, April, July and A general October in every year shall be Court days, on which the said panel of Jurors General Court shall sit for the purpose of drawing Jurors to serve to be drawn on for the then ensuing Term, and on such days the Justices, or pre- day in January, siding Justice of the said Court, shall cause to be drawn out of April, July and the Jury-box before mentioned, forty-eight pieces of parchment October, to or paper, on which shall be written the names of men qualified and serve for the liable to serve on Juries, and who shall be then actually within ensuing Terms. the limits of one or other of the Parishes in the Island of New Providence, and the men whose names shall be written thereon shall be the Jurors to serve for the then ensuing term, for the trial of all issues, criminal as well as civil, joined in the said Court, except such as may be set down to be tried by Special Juries, and to make all inquiries of damages which lawfully can or may be taken in the said Court; and after the names of the said Jurors shall have been correctly written down by the Clerk of the Crown, or some other duly-authorized person, the pieces of parchment or paper whereon the names of such Jurors are written, shall be again rolled up and placed in division number two of the Jury Box, and shall be so done as often as any Jury shall be drawn, until the whole of the names in the division number one shall have been drawn, when they shall in like manner be drawn out of division number two, and returned into division number one, and so alternately from time to time, as the pieces of parchment or paper shall be drawn out of either of the said divisions, in order that every man qualified and liable to serve on Juries may be drawn to serve thereon.

X. That after the Juries shall be drawn in manner before Writs of directed, the said Justices or any one of them, as aforesaid, shall venire facias cause a writ of Venire Facias Juratores to be issued under the juratores to seal of the said General Court, directed to the Provost Marshal of issue for the summoning of these Islands, or his lawful deputy, for the purpose of summoning Jurors.

26 Vic. c. 6. the Jurors drawn to serve for such term, and that the Provost Marshal or his lawful deputy, upon receipt of every such writ of venire facias, shall cause the several men whose names shall be inserted in the panel thereunto annexed, to be duly summoned within the time hereinafter limited; and in case the Provost Marshal or any of his deputies return any person as having been duly summoned to serve as a Juror, when in truth such person was not duly summoned, the said Provost Marshal or his deputy so offending shall, upon conviction thereof, be guilty of contempt of Court, punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either, at the discretion of the Court.

Summons to be served three days before

the day on which the Juror is to attend.

Juries, how drawn in Court to try issues.

Proviso, that
different issues
may be tried
by same
Jurors.

XI. That the summons to serve on Juries in the General Court aforesaid shall be made by the Provost Marshal, or his lawful deputy, three days at least before the day on which the Juror is to attend, by delivering to the man to be summoned, or in case he shall be absent from the usual place of his abode, by leaving with some person there inhabiting, a note in writing, under the hand of the Provost Marshal, or his deputy, containing the substance of such summons.

XII. That the name of each man who shall be summoned for the trial of issues in the aforesaid General Court shall be written on a distinct piece of parchment or paper, such pieces of parchment or paper being all as nearly as may be of equal size, and shall, under the directions and care of the Clerk of the Crown, or the Prothonotary of the said Court, be put together in a box, to be provided for that purpose, and when any issue shall be brought on to be tried, such Clerk of the Crown or Prothonotary as aforesaid shall, in open Court, draw out twelve of the said pieces of parchment or paper, one after another; and if any of the men whose names shall be so drawn shall not appear, or shall be challenged and set aside, then such further number, until twelve men be drawn, who shall appear, and after all just causes of challenge allowed, shall remain as fair and indifferent, and the said twelve men so drawn and appearing, and approved as indifferent, their names being marked in the panel, and they being sworn, shall be the Jury to try the issue, and the names of the men so drawn and sworn shall be kept apart by themselves until such Jury shall have given in their verdict, and the same shall be recorded, or until such Jury shall, by consent of the parties, or by leave of the Court, be discharged, and then the same names shall be returned to the box, there to be kept with the other names, remaining at that time undrawn, and so toties quoties as long as any issue remains to be tried: Provided always, that if any issue shall be brought on to be tried in any of the said Courts before the Jury in any other issue shall have brought in their verdict, or been discharged, it shall be lawful for the Court to order twelve of the residue of the said pieces of parchment or paper not containing the names of any of the Jurors, who shall not have so brought in their verdict, or been discharged, to be drawn in such manner as is aforesaid, for the trial of the issue which shall be so brought on to be tried: Provided also, that where no objection shall be made on behalf of the Queen, or any other party, it shall be lawful for the Court to try any issue with the same Jury that shall have previously tried or been drawn to try any other issue without their names being returned to the box, and re-drawn, or to order

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