British administration in overseas countries has conferred no greater benefit than English law and justice. That may be a trite observation, but I offer no apology. It has been said so often by so many people—as many laymen as lawyers and perhaps more Africans than Englishmen—that it must be assumed to be true. But what, in this context, are English law and justice, or similar expressions (it is put in many different ways) to be taken to comprehend ? I have heard one or two lawyers who have served overseas speak as if there were a rebuttable presumption that anything suitable for this country should be acceptable for a country in Africa. Even if that were true, and I am sure it is not, it would not that all English legal rules and institutions are appropriate for Africa, for they are not even suitable for England. It is only too true that the law is sometimes “an ass”. Not so often as some laymen like to claim, though laymen may be fair judges of what is good sense in law. I well remember how as a law student I became impatient with principles, especially in the law of torts and the rules of evidence, which to my mind left a large gap between law on the one hand and justice or common sense on the other. I am well aware that in my critical attitude I was at one with the majority, and all lawyers must welcome the labours of the Law Reform Committees, which have borne fruit in a steady stream of important Bills during the last thirty years.

The economic aspects of the hire-purchase movement are well known and it is not intended to discuss them here. It will be sufficient to point out that hire-purchase finance enables people, in certain circumstances, to live by taking in, not each other's washing, but their own. This remarkable achievement was recently explained by The Times:

“The reliance on funds from the public to finance consumer hire-purchase spending is, in fact, a paradox in that the public is ultimately financing itself. As it is pointed out in the second edition of Hire Purchase in a Free Society, the man who subscribes to a life endowment policy yet chooses to buy a car on hire-purchase rather than liquidate it may in effect be financing himself.”

The power of the High Court to apply customary law in appropriate cases is now to be found in s. 17 of the Western Region High Court Law, 1954, No. 3 of 1955, which in this respect merely repeats in substance the provisions of s. 17 of the old Supreme Court Ordinance (cap. 211). The power to enforce customary law in the Region is, as is usual in other places, made subject to such law not being repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience or incompatible with legislative provisions. Also customary law may be applicable between “Nigerians” and “non-Nigerians” where otherwise substantial injustice would be done to either party, and the operation of customary law could be excluded either by the nature of the transaction in question or by the agreement of the parties.