1058. THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH NOVEMBER, -1888.
Entries in books of
account. (Code s. 55.)
Governinent Gazettes.
Proclama- tions, acts of state, &c.
Books of solence, maps, charts.
Foreign Law,
Public maps.
Affidavits, &c. under 26 Geo. 4 c. 87, and 18 and 19, V. c. 42.
Affidavits before Ambassadors. (No. 7 of 1857, 6. 3.)
Documents to be admitted in evidence without proof of the seal or signature or official character of the ambas sador or other official person. (18 and 19 V. c. 42 a. 3, No. 7 of 1857 B. 1.)
Foreign parts out of Her Majesty's dominions; and the judges and other officers of the Supreme Court shall take judicial notice of the seal or signature, as the case may be, of any such Court, judge, notary public, person, Consul, or Vice- Consul, attached, appended, or subscribed to any such pleas, answers, disclaimers, examinations, affidavits, affirmations, attestations of honour, declarations, acknowledgments, or other documents to be used in the said Court.
27. In Civil proceedings: +---
(1.) Entries in books of account kept in the course of business with such a reasonable degree of re- gularity as shall be satisfactory to the Court, shall be admissible in evidence, whenever they refer to a matter into which the Court has to inquire, but shall not alone be sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability. (2.) The Hongkong Gazette and any Government Gazette of any country, 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 legis- lative or executive, nominations, appointments, and other official communications of the Govern- ment, 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 they were intended to notify. (1.) 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 autho- rity on the subject to which they relate. (5.) Books printed or published under the authority of the government of a foreign country, and purport- ing 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 ad- initted 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 govern- ment, 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. 28. All affidavits, affirmations and notarial acts taken and made under the Act of the Sixth year of King George the Fourth, Chapter Eighty-seven or under the Act of the Eighteenth and Nineteeth years of Her Present Majesty Chapter forty-two, shall and may be received, read and made use of in and before the Court and the judges and officers thereof, in or in relation to any suit, cause, matter, or proceeding in or before the Court in like manner, and shall be of the same force and effect, as affidavits and affirmations taken in or before the Supreme Court or by any person duly commissioned or authorised by such Court to take such affidavits or affirmations, and shall be filed and dealt with accordingly.
29. All documents whatsoever legally and properly filed or recorded in any Foreign Court of Justice or Consulate according to the law and practice of such Court or Consulate and all copies of such documents shall be admis- sible in evidence in the Court upon being proved in like manner as any documents filed or recorded in any Foreign Court are procurable under this or any other Ordinance; aud documents whatsoever so filed or recorded in any Foreign Court or Consulate and all copies of such docu- ments shall when so proved and admitted, be holden au- thentic and effectual for all purposes of evidence as the same would be bolden in such Foreign Court or Consulate. 30. Any document purporting to have affixed, impressed, or subscribed thereon or thereto the seal and signature of auy British ambassador, Envoy, Minister, Chargé d'Affaires, Secretary of Embassy or of Legation, Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul Acting Consul, pro-Consul, or Con- sular Agent, in testimony of any such oath, affidavit, affir- mation, or act having been administered, sworn, affirmed, had, or done by or before him under the Acts mentioned in the last section shall be admitted in evidence without proof of any such seal and signature being the seal and signature - of the person whose seal and signature the same purports to be, or of the official character of such person.
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