§ COLONEL BERESFORDasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether Mr. Montagu, appointed by His Excellency the Administrator of 1929 the Government of Sierra Leone to the office of Crown Presentor for that Settlement, vacant by the death of the Queen's Advocate in April last, is the same Mr. Montagu who was removed from the office of Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land in December 1847, "for obstructing the recovery of a debt due by himself," as reported in Moore's Privy Council Reports, Vol. VI., and in condemnation of whose conduct during his residence in Sierra Leone a numerously signed Petition was presented to the Colonial Office in 1867; and, whether it be the intention of Her Majesty's Government to restore trial by jury in Sierra Leone, of which constitutional privileges the Colonists have been deprived for four years, after enjoying it for a period of nearly seventy years?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN, in reply, said, Mr. Montagu was the same individual who was removed from an office in Van Diemen's Land 24 years ago. He was subsequently transferred by the Duke of Newcastle to be stipendiary magistrate in the Falkland Islands, and afterwards moved to be Registrar of Deeds in Sierra Leone. A Petition was presented to the Colonial Office in 1867, impugning not his official capacity, but his moral character. In such a Colony as Sierra Leone there is very great difficulty in finding fit and proper persons to fill public offices. My noble Friend at the head of the Colonial Office was at much pains to procure the services of Mr. Fyfe as Queen's Advocate, but that gentleman unfortunately died shortly after his acceptance of the appointment. There is no intention of appointing Mr. Montagu as his successor, although it is not proposed to interfere with the discretion of the Governor of the Colony with regard to any acting appointments during the vacancy. With regard to the second Question, trial by jury in civil, but not in criminal, cases was abolished when Lord Carnarvon was at the head of the Colonial Office. That was not done without full and careful consideration. It was found that the system was not suited to the condition of the Colony, and that the verdict was generally settled before the case was heard, by the head man of the tribe from which the jury was taken. It was certainly not the intention of Her Majesty's Government to restore a system which had been condemned by those 1930 best qualified to judge of the circumstances of the Colony.