This power has in some cases been given
directly, in others by authority to make laws and regulations under
sanctions like those enforced by the Houses of the imperial parliament.
In the case of Nova Scotia the provincial assembly has power to give
itself by statute authority to commit for contempt (_Fielding_ v.
_Thomas_, 1896; L.R.A.C. 600). In _Barton_ v. _Taylor_ (1886; 11 A.C.
197) the competence of the legislative assembly of New South Wales to
make standing orders punishing contempt was recognized to exist under
the colonial constitution, but the particular standing orders under
consideration are held not to cover the acts which had been punished.
(See May, _Parl. Pr._, 10th ed., 1896; Anson, _Law and Custom of the
Constitution_, 3rd ed., 1897.)

2. _Courts of Justice._ The term contempt of court, when used with
reference to the courts or persons to whom the exercise of the judicial
functions of the crown has been delegated, means insult offered to such
court or person by deliberate defiance of its authority, disobedience to
its orders, interruption of its proceedings or interference with the due
course of justice, or any conduct calculated or tending to bring the
authority or administration of the law into disrespect or disregard, or
to interfere with or prejudice parties or witnesses during the
litigation. The ingenuity of the judges and of those who are concerned
to defeat or defy justice have rendered contempt almost Protean in its
character. But for practical purposes most, if not all, contempts fall
within the classification which follows:--

(a) Disobedience to the judgment or order of a court commanding the
doing or abstaining from a particular act, e.g. an order to execute a
conveyance of property or an order on a person in a fiduciary capacity
to pay into court trust moneys as to which he is an accounting party.
This includes disobedience by the members of a local authority to a
_mandamus_ to do some act which they are by law bound to do; and
proceedings for contempt have been taken in the case of guardians of the
poor who have refused to enforce the Vaccination Acts, e.g. at Keighley
and Leicester, and of town councillors who have refused to comply with
an order to take specified measures to drain their borough (e.g.
Worcester). This process for compelling obedience is in substance a
process of civil execution for the benefit of the injured party rather
than a criminal process for punishing the disobe