Canada's great size and isolated settlements lend a colourful flair to the country's geography but place many an obstacle in the path of good administration. In the realm of the law the need for efficiency and despatch is particularly pressing, since an accused person has the right to have his case heard within a reasonable length of time. To cope with this problem there are across Canada some 485 magistrate's courts which deal with roughly 98% of all criminal charges laid. Many of these magistrates operate in remote rural areas, but whether they hold court in a modern metropolitan courthouse or on some picturesque patch of land temporarily declared to be one of Her Majesty's Courts, the law is administered with equal dignity and impartiality. On a wharf at Reef's Harbour, Newfoundland, Magistrate White hears the case of a local fisherman charged with laying lobster pots out of season.