THE AMALGAMATION OF TWO TOWN COUNCILS IN NYASALAND
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00102.x |
| Author | |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
AMALGAMATION
OF
TWO
TOWN
COUNCILS
IN
NYASALAND
135
some systems) review does
not
bar
subsequent appeal, remind
them
of
the
court's
decision so
that
their grounds of appeal can be more intelligently
stated.
On
the
other
hand
appeal procedure is preferable because of its
greater
precision
:-
(1)
In
those classes of cases, of which
debt
is an example, in which
the
issues
are precisely ascertained without difficulty.
(2) Where courts are sufficiently advanced to give precise
and
well reasoned
judgments for an appeal court to have
adequate
material upon which to
operate.
(3) In some
land
matters, notably those in which
the
division of
the
land
is
unlikely to be
the
correct remedy, for example, where a town plot is in
dispute, since title to such pieces of
land
is more precisely defined in
custom
than
title to farms or forest.
.
Without
actually fouling
the
fount of justice, review (it must be conceded)
IS a less scientific remedy
than
appeal and, in
the
long run,
must
yield to it.
As in so
many
matters,
an
important
problem is
the
pace
at
which
the
change
from one mode of redress to
the
other should
take
place. There is, however,
O?e pitfall to be avoided. In providing aremedy by way of appeal there is a
risk
that
second or subsequent tiers of courts which are nominally courts of
appeal in fact do little more
than
give litigants asecond hearing. Such courts
delay
the
application of principle to cases
and
postpone
the
proper development
of customary law. Where existing appeal courts perform no more useful
function
than
this their appeal jurisdiction should, it is suggested, be transferred
to reviewing officers
and
where
the
creation of new appeal courts is contemplated
the first instance should be examined to ascertain their suitability for subjection
to correction by way of appeal. On
many
occasions it
may
well be found
that
error jurisdiction in certain forms of action
may
usefully remain with, or go to,
appeal courts whereas in other classes of cases jurisdiction is
better
left under
review procedure.
THE
AMALGAMATION
OF
TWO
TOWN
COUNCILS IN NYASALAND
A note by the
African
Studies Branch
BLANTYRE
and
Limbe are two small towns
situated
within less
than
five
~hiles
of each other in
the
Southern Province of Nyasaland. Between
them
lies
e
~udi
Dam
Catchment Area to
the
north,
and
the
Soche African High Density
~eSld~ntial
area to
the
south.
Blantyre
has an
estimated
population of 9,600,
Ewhich 790 are Europeans
and
750
Asians;
Limbe, 13,800, of which 700 are
turopeans
and
1,110 Asians.
Each
township has a town council elected
by
the non-African residents
and
these councils perform similar functions.
Each
tOwn
council has its own Mayor, town hall
and
other
offices
and
paid
officials,
rough their valuation
and
rating
systems are different.
They
have
separate
eeetoral systems
and
hold separate elections. Limbe is predominantly
~o~nrercial
and
industrial, whereas
Blantyre
is residential. There is much
to!n~.
and
froing" between
the
towns, particularly for recreational
and
social
~~trYl~les,
and
the
narrow
strip
of open
country
which divides
them
is steadily
fnrInlshing.
The
link between
the
two towns is therefore strong
and
their
guture development as separate entities would inevitably make
the
local
overnnrent boundary between them purely artificial.
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