Entries in Books of Account.
Government Gazette.
Proclamations, Acts of State,
&c.
Books of
Bcience, Maps, Charts.
Foreign Law.
Public Maps.
In what Language.
How divided.
Facts known. to Witness.
Information from others.
Erasures, In. terhneations, &c.
Before whom
to be sworn.
In Foreign Parts.
130
CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONGKONG.
Documentary Evidenoe.
LV.—Entries in books of account kept in the course of business with such a reasonable degree of regularity as shall be satisfactory to the Court, shall be admissible in evidence, whenever they refer to a matter into which the Court has to enquire, but shall not alone be sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability.
2.-The Hongkong Gazette an1 any Government Gazette of any coun- try, colony, or dependency under the dominion of the British Crown, may be proved by the bare production thereof before the Court.
3.—All proclamations, acts of state, whether legislative or executive, nominations, appointments, and other official communications of the Gov. ernment, appearing in any such Gazette, may be proved by the production of such Gazette, and shall be prima facie proof of any fact of a public nature which th y were intended to notify.
4.-The Court may, on matters of public history, literature, science, or art, refer, for the purposes of evidence, to such published books, maps, or charts as the Court shall consider to be of authority on the subject to which they relate.
5.--Books print d or published under the authority of the govern- ment of a foreign country, and purporting to contain the statutes, code, or other written law of such country, and also printed and published books of reports of decisions of the courts of such country, and books proved to be commonly admitted in such courts as evidence of the law of such country, shall be admissible as evidence of the law of such foreign country.
6. All maps made under the authority of any government, or of any public municipal body, and not made for the purpose of any litigated question, shall prima facie be deemed to be correct, and shall be admitted in evidence without further proof.
Affidavits.
LVI.-Every affidavit used iu the Court must be in the English
language.
2. It must be in the first person, and must be divided into paragraphs numbered corsecutively.
•
3.-Every affidavit used in the Court must contain only a statement of facts and circumstances as to which the witness swears, either on his own personal knowledge, or from information which he believes to be true. 4. Where the belief in the truth of the matter of fact sworn to arises from information received from another person, the name of such person must be stated.
5.-Where there are many erasures, interlineations or alterations, so that the affidavit proposed to be sworn is illegible or difficult to read, or is, in the judgm nt of the officer before whom it is proposed to be sworn, so written as to give any tacility for being added to, or in any way fraudulently altered, he may refuse to take the affidavit in its existing form, and may require it to be re-written in a clear and legible and unobjectionable manner.
6. Any affidavit sworn before any judge, officer, or other person in the United Kingdom or in any British colony, possession, or settlement awhorized to take affi lavi's, or b fore any commissioner duly authorized by the Supreme Court to take affidavits in the United Kingdom or abroad, may
be used in the Cour in all cases where affidavits are admissible. 7.-An affidavit sworn in any foreign parts out of Her Majesty's dominions before a judge or magistrate, bei g authenticated by the official seal of the court to which he is attached or by a public notary, or before a British minister, consul, vice-consul, or consular agent, may be used in the Court in all cases where affidavits are admiss.ble.
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