front which were sold at fifty or sixty dollars a mow in the early days when the first committee of roads and jetties was formed (1844), are worth as many thousands to-day. It is estimated that Great Britain alone has here vested interests of the huge value of £250,000,000.
The astute business man of China soon realised the advantage of living under equitable government, and, contrary to the intentions of its founders, flocked into the settlement. To-day the Chinese lady, decked in her most splendid satins and silks, may be seen driving in her smart victoria along Bubbling Well Road, while the Chinese gentleman bowls gaily along in his latest pattern motor-car from Europe. With this influx of Chinese into the republic, the question of courts of law for so mixed a community, accustomed to codes of law so widely divergent as those of China and Europe, presented itself for solution, and gave rise to the establishment in 1863 of a "Mixed Court" for the trial of Chinese in cases in which foreigners were involved, the Chinese magistrates being assisted in their functions by
