Miscellaneous.
No. 183.
30 ( 695 WŁ
Printed for the use of the Cabinet.
EVIDENCE
(COLONIAL BILL, 1906.
STATUTES)
11th May,
1905.
MEMORANDUM.
At present Colonial laws are regarded by English Courts as foreign laws for the purposes of proof, and have to be proved by oral evidence of a qualified expert.
In February, 1905, at the request of his Prime Minister, the Governor-General of Australia brought to the notice of the Secre- tary of State for the Colonies a case in which a man had been acquitted in England of embezzling his wife's money on the ground of absence of evidence that the Married Women's Property Act had been made effective in Victoria. Lord Northcote stated that the status of Colonial laws seemed to his Ministers anomalous, and that they asked that the advisability should be considered of introducing legislation requiring all courts and judicial tribunals in the United Kingdom to take notice of all acts of the legislature of any British Possession,
The Law Officers of the Crown agreed with the Secretary of State that such legisla- tion was undesirable, but that there would be no objection to legislation facilitating the 29th May, proof of Colonial statutes. The matter was then referred to the Lord Chancellor, who was of opinion that there was no need for any Mr. Lyttelton, legislation on the subject.
1905.
2nd June, 1905.
6th July, 1905.
however, considered that a refusal to remove what the Colonies regarded as a grievance would cause disappointment in Australia, and accordingly communicated again with the Lord Chancellor, strongly recommending a He also intended bill, for political reasons.
to discuss the question with Lord Halsbury personally, but owing to the change of Government, the matter did not go any further.
The draft Bill provides that copies of Colonial and Indian laws shall be received in evidence in British courts, if purporting to be printed by the Government printer, with- out further proof.
Colonial Office,
2/06 D & S
5
23609
January 30, 1906.
[P.T.O.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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2
A.D. 1906. DRAFT OF A BILL to facilitate the admission in evidence of statutes passed by the
Legislatures of British Possessions and Protectorates and Cyprus.
Proof of statutes of British possessions.
Bee 8 & 9
Vict. c. 113. *. 3.]
[See 31 &
32. Vict.
c. 37. s. 5.]
28 & 29
Vict. c. 63.
Short title
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parlia- ment assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
1-1) Copies of Acts, Ordinances, and other instruments having statutory force passed (whether before or after the passing of this Act) by the Legislature of any British Possession, if purporting to be printed by the Government printer, shall be received in evidence by all Courts of Justice in the United Kingdom without any proof being given that the copies were so printed.
(2) In this Act--
The expression "Government printer" means, as respects any British Posses- sion, the printer purporting to be the printer authorised to print the Acts, Ordinances, or Statutes of the Legislature of that possession, or otherwise to be the Government printer of that possession: The expression" British Possession means any part of His Majesty's dominions exclusive of the United Kingdom, and, where parts of those dominions are under both a central and a local Legislature, shall include both all parts under the central Legislature and each part under a local Legis-
lature.
(3) Nothing in this Act shall affect the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865. (4) His Majesty may by Order in Council extend this Act to Cyprus and any British Protectorate, and where so extended this Act shall apply as if Cyprus or the Protectorate were a British Possession, and with such other necessary adaptations as may be made by the Order.
2.
This Act may be cited as the Evidence (Colonial Statutes) Act, 1906.
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