CO129-549-17 Harbour ferry- increase in estimate for improvements 20-8-1934 - 20-8-1934 — Page 10

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

respect of the method of summoning jurors and in respect of the recording of juries' verdicts which has long been followed in fact.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.

Objects and Reasons.

The "Objects and Reasons" for the Bill were stated as follows:

1. Section 2 of this Ordinance repeals sections 13 and 14 of the principal Ordinance and re-enacts them with modifications.

2. Section 13 permitted the Registrar of the Supreme Court, in forming any jury panel, to pass over the names of persons drawn who could not be served with summonses by reason of death or absence from the Colony. The substituted section 13 permits him in forming a panel under section 9 of the Coroner's Abolition Ordinance, 1888, to pass over also the names of persons drawn who in his opinion cannot conveniently be served in sufficient time to secure their attendance as jurors. Death inquiries under section 8 of the latter Ordinance have to be held at very short notice.

3. Section 14 of the Jury Ordinance, 1887, required that jurors' summonses should be either served personally or left at the usual place of abode of the persons drawn two clear days before the day appointed for the sitting of the court.

4. The provision requiring two clear days notice is imprac- ticable in cases under section 8 of the Coroner's Abolition Ordinance, 1888, and unnecessary where personal service is effected. Moreover with the expansion of residential districts on both sides of the harbour it has become increasingly difficult to effect service at the residential addresses (cf. definition of "Abode" in Stroud's Judicial Dictionary Vol. 3 p. 1489) of the persons drawn. For many years it has been the practice to serve the summonses by leaving at the jurors' places of business instead of at their residences.

5. The substituted section 14 requires two days' notice only in those cases where personal service is not effected and regularises the practice of leaving the summonses at the places of business of the jurors concerned.

6. Section 3 amends section 23 of the Jury Ordinance, 1887, by allowing the clerk of the court to act as the officer of the court who takes and records verdicts. It is impracticable for the Registrar to be present in court on all occasions when verdicts are given, and the amendment regularises a practice which has prevailed for many years.

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