Extracts from records
to be primá facie evidence.
Magistrate may employ an analyst to report on technical points.
Certificate
of Govern- ment or Monopoly Analyst
to be sufficient evidence.
Protection
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51. In all proceedings under this Ordinance and in all proceedings for the recovery of any duty on tobacco, the production of any copies of or extracts from the records of the Superintendent purporting to be certified by the Superintendent shall be primá facie evidence of the facts stated or appearing therein or to be inferred therefrom.
52. The magistrate hearing any charge under this Ordinance may employ an analyst or other skilled person to report on any technical point. and may order the payment of the fee of such analyst by the defendant in addition to any other penalty, and such fee shall be recoverable in the same way as a penalty imposed under this Ordinance is recoverable.
53. At the hearing of any charge under this Ordin- ance, the production of a certificate purporting to be signed by the Government or Monopoly Analyst shall be sufficient evidence of the facts therein stated, unless the defendant requires that the Analyst should be called as a witness, but, if the defendant shall require the Analyst to be called, the magistrate may order him in addition to any other penalty to pay a fee of twenty-five dollars for the attendance of the Analyst, such fee to be recoverable in the same way as a penalty imposed under this Ordinance is recover- able and to be paid into the Treasury. When any such certificate bears the same number or mark as a sealed packet produced by the prosecution at the hearing, it shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed that such certificate relates to the contents of such packet.
54. Except as hereinafter mentioned, no informa- of informers tion laid under this Ordinance shall be admitted in from
evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding whatsoever discovery.
and no witness shall be obliged or permitted to disclose the name or address of any informer under this Ordinance or state any matter which might lead to his discovery. Moreover, if any books, documents or papers which are in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceeding whatsoever contain any entry in which any informer is named or described or which might lead to his discovery, the court shall cause all such passages to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far as may be necessary to protect the informer from discovery but no further. But if on the trial of any offence under this Ordinance the magistrate after full inquiry into the case believes that the informer wilfully made in his information a material statement which he knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true or if in any other proceeding the magistrate is of opinion that justice cannot be fully done between the parties thereto without the discovery of the informer, it shall be lawful for the magistrate to require the production of the original information and permit inquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
Respon- silibility for acts of agents and servants.
4
55. Every licensee under this Ordinance and the holder of every permit under this Ordinance shall, without prejudice to the liability of any other person, be liable criminally for the acts and omissions of his agents and servants in respect of any offence against this Ordinance, and if such licensee or such permit- holder is himself an agent or servant of a company or firm and the licence or permit has been granted wholly or partly for the benefit of such company or firm, he shall, without prejudice to the liability of any other person, be liable criminally for the acts and omissions of the agents and servants of such company or firm in respect of any offence against this Ordinance : Provided that no person shall be sentenced to imprisonment by virtue only of the provisions of this section.
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