4
Extends 15 & 16
The Hongkong Government Gazette.
HONGKONG.
ANNO VIGESIMO VICTORIÆ REGINE.
No. 7 of 1857.
[JUNE 6, 1857.
By His Excellency SIR JOHN BOWRING, Knight, LL.D., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British Subjects in China, with the Advice of the Legislative Council of Hongkong.
An Ordinance for amending the Laws relating to Juries and Evidence.
[1st June, 1857.]
Be it enacted and ordained by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the Advice of the Legislative Council thereof, in manner following, that is to say-
I. From and after the passing of this Ordinance, there are hereby extended to this Colony the Twenty- Viet., c. 86, s. 22, and second Section of the Act of Parliament passed in the Sixteenth Year of Her present Majesty, Chapter 18 & 19 Vict., c. 42, Eighty-six, relating to the Court of Chancery; and also the whole of the Act of Parliament passed in the with certain excep Nineteenth Year of Her Majesty, Chapter Forty-two, relating to Oaths and Notarial Acts, except Section tions, to this Colony. Four of the last mentioned Act: And also except so much of Section Five of the said lastmentioned Act
False Affidavits, Af- firmations and Acts.
Foreign Documents.
.
as doth not relate to the Impounding or Custody of Documents, or the tendering in evidence Documents with false or counterfeit Seals or Signatures thereto.
II. Any Person tendering in evidence within this Colony any false Affidavits, Affirmations, or Notarial Acts within the meaning of Section Four of the said lastmentioned Act, knowing the same to be false, shall, upon conviction thereof, suffer the Penalties of Perjury.
III. 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 Docu- ments, shall be admissible in evidence within this Colony, upon being proved in like manner as any Docu- ments filed or recorded in any Foreign Court are proveable under this or any other Ordinance; and all Documents whatsoever so filed or recorded in any Foreign Court or Consulate, and all Copies of such Documents, shall, when so proved and admitted, be holden as authentic and effectual for all purposes of evidence as the same would be holden in such Court or Consulate.
Depositions may be IV. Whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Supreme Court, or of the Court of Petty read at Trial when the Sessions, that the Person conducting a Criminal Prosecution on behalf of the Crown is merely, by reason Witnes is absent, or of the illness or absence from the Colony of, or the impracticability of serving process on, a Person whose too ill to be produced. Deposition shall have been duly taken in the matter, before or on the Committal of the Prisoner to take his Trial upon such Prosecution, unable to produce the said Person as a Witness upon the said Trial, then and in such case the said Deposition may be read at the said Trial as Evidence against the said Prisoner, if the said Court shall think fit.
Heathen Witnesses
order of the Court.
same.
.:
V. A Heathen Witness, in any Court or before any Person empowered to administer an Oath, shall not to be sworn, but by not be sworn either before or upon giving his Testimony, unless the said Court or Person shall think fit so to direct; in which case the said Witness shall be sworn according to his Conscience. But every Heathen Witness shall, before the taking of his said Evidence, be by, or by the order of, the said Court or` Person, duly warned to speak the Truth, and informed of the Penalties to which, in case he shall not speak the Truth, he will become liable; it being hereby declared and enacted, that the Penalties of Perjury shall be deemed and taken to apply to False Testimony given by any such Witness, whether sworn or unsworn, in any case where, if he had given the same upon Oath, he would by Law have thereby become liable to the
Contradictory State- VI. Where two or more contradictory Statements of Fact or alleged Fact, material to the issue or ments by the same matter in question, have been wilfully and knowingly made by one and the same Witness, before any Court Witness may be pun- or Person empowered as aforesaid, either at the same Examination or at two or more Examinations, and ished as Perjury, if material to the issue.. whether before the same Court or Person, or before any other Court or Person, and whether the respective truth or falsehood of the said statements can be ascertained or not, an Indictment or. Information may be presented or exhibited against him, charging him with having, on the Day or Days of his said Examina- tion or Examinations, wilfully and knowingly made the said conflicting or contradictory Statements, and setting forth the short material purport or effect thereof respectively; and if such Witness shall be thereof convicted in whole or in part, he shall suffer the Penalties of Perjury.
marily, unless a Pro-
Or (if before the VII. If the Court before which any false Document within the meaning of Section Two shall Supreme Court or have been tendered, or before which the Statements in Section Six mentioned, or the last of them, shall Petty Sessious) sum- have been so made, shall happen to be the Supreme Court, or the Court of Petty Sessions, such Court may, secution be directed, if it shall think fit, either direct a Prosecution of the same offence for Perjury, and commit the Offender, unless and the like in case of he shall give bail, for trial at the next Sessions of the Court so committing, or treat the same as a Contempt tendering false Docu- of Court, and forthwith proceed summarily to punish the same, either by Fine not exceeding for every such offence Two Hundred Dollars, or by Imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding for every such offence Six Calendar Months, which Punishment shall be in lieu of all other Penalties hereby provided.
ments.
Shortening the form
Ordinances No. 4 of
"
VIII. Matters of Inducement, and Averments, whether Affirmative or Negative, shall no longer be of Indictments and In- introduced into Indictments or Informations for Perjury, False Witness, or False Declaration; and it shall formations for Per-
be sufficient to charge therein, according to the facts, that the Defendant, on the day or days named, jury, &c.
falsely, knowingly, and wilfully stated or tendered before the Court or Person empowered as aforesaid, the matters alleged to be false, setting forth the same shortly, and according to the substantial effect thereof. 1851,(§§ 5,6, & 7,) aud IX. Section Five of Ordinance No. Four of 1851 is hereby amended, by substituting the word No. 14 of 1856, § 2, 'February' for the word 'January-Sections Six and Seven of the same Ordinance are hereby revived amended and confirm and confirmed;-Section Two of Ordinance No. Fourteen of 1856, is hereby amended by inserting the word ed ; and Ordinances First' before the word 'Schedule';-And Ordinances No. One of 1851 and No. Four of 1854, are hereby No. 1 of 1851, and No.
repealed.
4 of 1854 repealed.
• Witness' defined.
Retrospective.
X. The word Witness' in this Ordinance shall extend to every person whose Acknowledgment, Answer, Plea, Deposition, Affidavit, or other Declaration upon Oath, either vicâ voce, in writing, or upon record, may be taken or might have been taken but for this Ordinance.
XI. All acts heretofore done, which if done after the passing of this Ordinance, or during the time when the Ordinance No. Fifteen of 1856 was in force, would have been legally done, or which were legally done during the time last aforesaid, are hereby made legal and valid for all purposes soever.
JOHN BOWRING.
Passed the Legislative Council of Hongkong,
this 1st Day of June, 1857.
L. D'ALMADA e Castro,
Clerk of Councils.