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263 Mitchell, Samuel James (Justice)

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With the transfer of the Territory to control by the Federal government imminent, Mitchell resigned from parliament in January 1910 to become Government Resident and judge in the Northern Territory.

In Palmerston (Darwin) he tried to revive the economy by introducing a public works programme and by encouraging mineral prospecting and investment. In 1911 he helped to effect the transfer of control of theTterritory to the Commonwealth. Although he remained the Territory's Acting Administrator and Judge of the new Supreme Court, he resigned in 1912 after the Federal authorities refused to guarantee the independence of his judicial office by making his appointment tenable for life.

Returning to South Australia, Mitchell became a stipendiary magistrate at Port Pirie. In 1916 he was transferred to the Adelaide Police Court. With the death of Commissioner J. G. Russell early in 1918, he was promoted to Commissioner of Insolvency, a title altered to Judge in 1926; he was also Stipendiary Magistrate of the Adelaide Local Court and the Taxation Appeal Court. He was the Royal Commissioner investigating the State Bank's thousand homes contract (1925), and police bribery (1926). During the sitting of the latter Mitchell became ill.

Samuel James Mitchell died of pneumonia on 3 October 1926 and was buried in North Road cemetery after a service at Holy Trinity Anglican church. His wife, son and two daughters survived him; Dame Roma Mitchell, Australia's first woman QC and judge, is a granddaughter.

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