Background
The British government established the colony of New South Wales primarily as a penal colony, although it did encourage settlement. Its principal purpose was to house prisoners from Great Britain. Captain Arthur Phillip was appointed as the colony's first governor.
The British authorities foresaw the need for a judicial system to be established in the colony to deal with criminal matters. This was to be a two-tier system. The higher tier was to be the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, which was to deal with the major offences occurring in the colony. The lower tier was to be the existing English system of appointing justices of the peace to administer the lesser type of offences.
Read more about this topic: Court Of Criminal Jurisdiction
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)