Jurisdiction
The court was empowered to deal with any crimes committed in the colony of New South Wales. The colony at that time took in what is now Tasmania, then called Van Diemen's Land, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, and of the course the current state of New South Wales. The scope of the colony was quite limited in its early days, so jurisdiction over places such as South Australia did not practically occur. In the case of Van Diemen's Land, the court rarely sat there, and prisoners were brought to Sydney for trial, or dealt with summarily in Hobart. The court also had jurisdiction to deal with offences in the colony of Norfolk Island, although it did not sit on that island. Prisoners were usually shipped back to Sydney to be dealt with. Technically, the court had jurisdiction over offences committed in New Zealand but practically did not deal with any such matters.
Read more about this topic: Court Of Criminal Jurisdiction
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—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)