the above which up to the passing of Ordinance No 6 of 1864 constituted the written law on the subject in this Colony.
In consequence of the unsatisfactory state of the Law, His Excellency directed me in March last to consult with the Honorable Acting Chief Justice with a view to the preparation of an Ordinance to regulate the admission of depositions of deceased Witnesses or others who could not be produced at the Criminal Sessions.
I accordingly submitted to the Acting Chief Justice the sketch of an enactment which embodied substantially sections 16 and 17 of 11 and 12 Vic: C 42 and extended the provisions to meet the depositions taken and statements made by the accused before Consuls in China and Japan, with other subsidiary Clauses.
His Honor, the Acting Chief Justice, however, disapproved of my sketch and submitted a Draft Ordinance which, with an addition, is now No 6 of 1864. This Ordinance will probably meet every occasion when the witness who has deposed either before a Police Magistrate or a Consul cannot be produced at the trial in the Supreme Court.