CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONGKONG
Documentary Evidence.
301
LV.-Entries in book of account kept in the course of business with Entries in Book such a reasonable degree of regularity as shall be satis!actory to the Court, of Account. shall be admissible in evidence, whenever they refer to a matter into which the Court has to enquire, but shall not alene be sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability.
Gazette.
2.-The Hongkong Gazette and any Government Gazette of any coun. Government try, colony, or dependency under the dominion of the British Crown, may be proved by the bare production thereof before the Court.
Acts of State,
3.-All proclamations, acts of state, whet er legislative or executive, Proclamations, nominations, appointments, and other official communications of the Govern- &c. ment, app aring 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 they were intended to notify.
Science, Maps,
4.- Tie Court may, on matters of publicistory, literature, science, Books of or art, refer, for the purp ses of evidence, to such published books, maps, Charts. or charts as the Court shall consider to be of authority on the subject to which they relate.
5.-Books printed or published under the authority of the gover:- Foreign Law. 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 Ma public municipal body, and not made for t' e purpose of any litigated question, shall primâ facie be deemed to be correct, and shall be admitted in evidence without further proof.
Affidavits.
Language.
LVI.-Every affidavit used in the Court must be in the English language. In what 2.- It must be in the fi: st person, and must be divided into paragraphs How divided. numi ered consecutively.
Witnesses.
3.-Every affidavit used in the Court must contain only a statement Facts known to of facts and circumstances as to which the witness swears, either on + is own personal knowledge, or from information which be believes to be true.
4.-Were the belief in the truth of the matter of fact sworn to Information arises from information recei ed from anot! er person, the name of such person must be stated.
from others.
terlincations,
5. Where there are many erasures, interlineations, or alterations, Erasures, In- so that the affidavit proposed to be sworn is illegible or difficult to read, or is, in te judgmen of the officer before whom it is proposed to be sworn, so written as to give any facility for being added to, or in any way fraudulently altered, he may refuse to take the affidavit in its existing form, "nd may require it to be re-written in a clear and legible and unobjectionable manner.
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to be sworn.
6.-Any affidavit sworn before any judge, officer, or other person in Before hom the United Kingdom or in any British colony, possession, or settlement authorized to take affidavit, or before 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 admissibl».
7. Any affidavit sworn in any foreign parts out of Her Majesty's In Foreign, dominions before a judge or magistrate, being authenticated by the official Parts. 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 admissible.
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