HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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6. Under section 14 of the principal Ordinance any person against whom, at an inquiry, evidence of an offence has been disclosed may be prosecuted according to the ordinary procedure before magistrates or, at the discretion of the magistrate holding the inquiry, committed for trial at the Supreme Court. Section 8 of this Ordinance abolishes this discretion, and makes prosecution before a magistrate necessary in all cases before trial.
The object of sections 7 and 8 of this Ordinance is to ensure that every accused person shall be charged as soon as possible with the offence of which he is accused, and shall have an opportunity of replying to the charge and cross-examining the witnesses; and also to secure a uniform procedure in all cases. The amendment to section 14 of the principal Ordinance is based on section 355 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Ordinance No. 121) of the Straits Settlements. Provision is made for the obtaining, by an accused person, of copies of the depositions on which he has been charged, and for bail; and it is also provided, on the lines of section 20 (2) of the Coroners (Amendment) Act, 1926, that no person who has been charged on indictment may be charged with any offence of which he could have been convicted on the indictment.
7. Sections 16, 18 and 19 of the principal Ordinance, which deal with committal to the Supreme Court from a magistrate's inquiry, are repealed by sections 9, 10 and 11 of this Ordinance, and replaced by new sections 16 and 18, based on sections 320 and 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Straits Settlements, which provide that the Attorney General shall have powers in respect of inquiries similar to those vested in the High Court in England by section 6 of the Coroners Act, 1887 (50 and 51 Vict., c. 71).
8.
Section 15 of the principal Ordinance is also repealed by. section 11 of this Ordinance, the procedure relating to burials under a magistrate's order, with which it deals, being regulated by section 14 of the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, No. 7 of 1896, and sections 90 and 91 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, No. 1 of 1903.
9 Section 12 of this Ordinance adds a new form (No. 5) to the Schedule to the principal Ordinance in pursuance of the amendments mentioned in paragraph 6.
JURY AMENDMENT ORDINANCE, 1934.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the Jury Ordinance, 1887". He said: This amending Ordinance introduces no radical changes in the law but regularises procedure in respect of passing over (when necessary) persons drawn for a Coroner's Jury panel, in
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