13u The Burri electric light and water supply at Khartoum continued to run satisfactorily. The much-wanted extension has been arranged for financially, and the necessary plant ordered to cover estimated requirements in the way of anticipated demands for light and partially for water for the next few years. It is unlikely, however, that this additional plant will be actually installed till' towards the end of 1920, as it is quite imppssible to obtain prompt delivery of the machinery required. The ice plant installed in 1917 at Burri has continuously worked at full capacity, and it is to be duplicated by the above-mentioned extension.

Buildings generally have been fairly well maintained throughout the country, though maintenance work is sufi’ering rather from the enhanced cost of all materials and Tabouir.

The Gezira piumping stations have run satisfactorily throughout the year. The Public Works Department has, as usual, carried out engineer services for the British) troops in the Soudan. Now that the costs of maintaining buildings are so very much higher, the allowance given to the Soudan Government for maintaining Imperial Government buildings and carrying out minor services should be augmented to prevent deterioration of the British barracks at Khartoum. A large expenditure is required on the verandahs of these buildings. The unprecedented number of sand storms experienced during the summer of this year caused an accumulation of sand drifts round the buildings, the cost of the removal of which cannot be met by the annual' grant.

YIII.—JUSTICE.

The resignation of Mr., now Sir Edgar Bonham Carter, K.C.M.G., to take up the organisation of the judicial stem in Mesopotamia in the Autumn of 1917 was an event which deserves notice. He had been for eighteen years in the service of the Government and was responsible for the creation and development of the whole legal and judicial system of the Soudan. He started in 1899 with hiniself and one clerk on the side of civil law, and seven Kadis of Mohammedan law with a staff of ten clerks. On his retirement, besides the legal secretary’s own office, which dealt with the more general legal work of the Government, he left an organisation consisting of High Court, Province Courts, and District Courts for the administration of civil law; Moslem Courts, dealing with all matters of personal status of Moslems; an Advocate-General’s office, dealing v/ith- the contentious and other legal business of Government departments and also with the administration of unrepresented estates of non-Moslems; a system of lands registration, and a separate department for the administration of Government lands.

Sir Ear Bonham Carter was not only the founder of the legal system of the Soudan. Effi took the keenest interest in all matters connected with the administration, and the general policy of the country owes much to his wisdom, sympathy and energy. His departure is felt as a serious loss for both personal and public reasons, by all who knew him.

38. Civil and Criminal Justice. The vacancy caused in 1914 on the High Court bench has not been filled; two district judges, lent by the Civil Service, have returned to administrative duties, two have been lent to Egypt and Mesopotamia, one province judge has retired, one has been raised to the High Court, and after the loan of temporary officers, who were barristers, we have now four new district judges and one province judge transferred from the Lands Department.

The comparative state of civil and criminal cases in the years under review is sufficiently shown by the following summarised tables;— 1914. 1915.

Criminal cases— Summary .. Non-Summary Fines Civil suits Appeals Executions Bankruptcies Total feeB 11,866 1,470 3.414 16,438 118 2,212 14 4,495 12,142 1,229 3,527 17,772 105 2,206 9 4,688 1916.

12,314 1,166 4.756 14,265 87 2,214 1 4,407 1917.

15,155 1,385 7,625 11,474 88 1,595 2 3,971 1918. 1919.

18,552 1,642 10,560 11,956 104 1,739 2 7,035 13,989 1,885 11,746 12,635 184 • • 4 5,394 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.