Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 516

Expenses of witnesses

án Civil cases.

Examination on oath.

Perjury.

Enforcing payment of wosts, penalties, and other moneyɛ.

Application of fees, and other moneys.

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Mode of removal of prisoners, &c.

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216

ORDER IN COUNCIL.

148. In civil cases any Court may, where the circumstances appear to justify it, order that the expenses of a witness, on his appearing to give evidence, shall be defrayed by the parties or any of them.

149. Any person appearing before a Court to give evidence in any case, civil or criminal, may be examined or give evidence on oath in the form or with the ceremony that he declares to be binding on his conscience.

150. Any British subject wilfully giving false evidence in any suit or proceeding, civil or criminal, or on any reference, sball, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury.

151. All costs and all charges and expenses of witnesses, prosecutions, punishments, and deportations, and other charges and expenses, and all fees, fines, forfeitures, and pecuniary penalties payable under this Order, may be levied by distress and seizure and sale of ships, goods, and lands; and no bill of sale, or mortgage, or transfer of property, made with a view to security in regard to crimes or offences committed, or to be committed, shall be of any avail to defeat any provisions of this Order.

152. All fees, fines, forfeitures, confiscations, and pecuniary penalties levied under this Order, except confiscations and pecuniary penalties by treaty appropriate or payable to the Government of China, or to that of the Tycoon of Japan, shall be carried to the public accounts, and be applied in diminution of the public expenditure on account of Her Majesty's Courts in China and Japan; but if the Government of China or that of the Tycoon of Japan declines to receive any confiscation or pecuniary penalty by treaty appropriated or payable to it, the same shall be applied as other confiscations and pecuniary penalties are applicable.

153. Whenever under this Order any person is to be taken in custody or otherwise, for trial or imprisonment, or by way of deportation, or for any other purpose, to the Supreme Court or elsewhere, in China or Japan or to Hongkong, England, or elsewhere, the Court or other authority by this Order authorized to cause him to be so taken, may for that purpose (if necessary) cause him to be embarked on board one of Her Majesty's vessels of war, or if there is no such vessel available, then on board any British or other fit vessel, at any port or place whether within or beyond the particular jurisdiction or district of that Court or authority, and in order to such embark ment may (if necessary) cause him to be taken, in custody or otherwise, by land or by water, from any place to the port or place of embarkment.

The writ, order, or warrant of the Supreme Court for China and Japan, or of a Provincial Court in China or Japan, or of the Supreme Court of Hongkong, or the warrant of the Governor or person administering the government of Hongkong (as the case may be), by virtue whereof any person is to be so taken, shall be sufficient authority to every constable, officer, or other person acting thereunder, and to the commander or master of any vessel of war, of other vessel (whether the constable, officer, or other person, or the vessel or the commander or master thereof, is named therein or not), to receive, detain, take, and deliver up such person, according to the writ, order,

or warrant.

Where the writ, order, or warrant is executed under the immediate direction of the Court or authority issuing it, the writ order, or warrant shall be delivered to the constable, officer, or other person acting thereunder, and a duplicate thereof shall be delivered to the commander or master of any vessel in which the person to whom the writ, order, or warrant relates is embarked.