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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
Sub-section (3) of new section 8 removes a doubt as to whether a "view" is required in inquiries under sub-sections (1) and (2) of that section.
In ordinary death inquiries under section 7 of the principal Ordinance it is left to the discretion of the magistrate whether or not there shall be a view of the body.
Old section 8 originally required a view of the body in the cases to which it applied; but section 30 of the Schedule to the Law Revision Ordinance, No. 5 of 1924, authorised the deletion of the words "view the body and".
It is open to question whether this alteration by a Revision Ordinance had the effect of abolishing the view in cases under old section 8; especially as section 4 imposes on magistrates the duties which a Coroner had by law at the commencement of the Ordinance, one of those duties being a view of the body (Rex v. Haslewood 1926 II K.B. 468).
In the Straits Settlements by section 326 (2) of Ordinance No. 121 provision is made for a view of the body where it appears to the greater number of the jury to be expedient. In England by section 14 of the Coroners (Amendment) Act, 1926, a view by the Coroner is still necessary and by the jury also if a majority so desires.
In the circumstances it is considered desirable to add, in sub- section (3) of new section 8, words which will make it clear that at inquiries under the section the magistrate shall view the body but that a view by the jury shall not be necessary unless it appears to the magistrate or to the greater number of the jurors expedient for the jury to do so.
4. Section 6 of this Ordinance adds a new sub-section (3) to section 12 of the principal Ordinance requiring a magistrate who holds an inquiry without a jury to record his finding in the same way as he records the finding of the jury under sub-section (1) of that section,
5. Section 7 of this Ordinance adds to section 13 of the principal Ordinance three new sub-sections of which sub-sections (2) and (3), based on section 20 (1) and (3) of the Coroners (Amendment) Act, 1926, provide for the adjournment of an inquiry in cases where a person has been charged before a magistrate with causing the death of the person whose death is the subject of the inquiry, and regulate the procedure in cases where such inquiry is re-opened after the jury has been discharged.
New sub-section (4) provides for the continuity of proceedings at an adjourned inquiry held by a magistrate alone or with the same jury as at the original inquiry.
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