Directory_and_Chronicle_1886 — Page 835

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONGKONG.

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shall be liable to be summoned as a witness, without the consent previously obtained of the Court or person before whom his attendance is required.

relieve Witness"

7.-If a witness be asked any question relating to a matter not relevant Court may to the suit or proceeding, except in so far as it affects the credit of the F VOR witness by injuring his character, the Court shall decide whether or not ing certain the witness shall be compelled to answer it, and may, if it think fit, warn the witness that he is not obliged to answer it.

Questions.

8.—No such question shall be asked, unless the person asking it has Reasonable reasonable grounds for believing that the imputation it conveys is well Grounds for

founded.

such Question.

decent and

9.—The Court may forbid any questions or inquiries which it regards Questions in- as indecent or scandalous, although such questions or inquiries may have scandalous. some bearing on the questions before the Court, unless they relate to facts in issue, or to matters necessary to be known in order to determine whether or not the facts in issue existed.

10.—The Court shall forbid any question which appears to it to be Needlessly intended to insult or annoy, or which, though proper in itself, appears to offensive. the Court needlessly offensive in form.

Documentary Evidence.

of Account.

LV.-Entries in books of account kept in the course of business with Entries in Books such a reasonable degree of regularity as shall be satisfactory to the Court, shall be admissible in evidence, whenever they refer to a matter into which the Court has to inquire, but shall not alone be sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability.

Gazettes.

2.-The Hongkong Gazette and any Government Gazette of any coun- Government try, colony, or dependency under the dominion of the British Crown, may be proved by the bare production thereof before the Court.

&c.

3.-All proclamations, acts of state, whether legislative or executive, Proclamations, nominations, appointments, and other official communications of the Gov- Acts of State, ernment, appearing in any such Gazette, may be proved by the production of such Gazette, and shall be prima facie proof of any fact of a public nature which they were intended to notify.

4. The Court may, on matters of public history, literature, science, Books of

Science, Maps, or art, refer, for the purposes of evidence, to such published books, maps, charts. or charts as the Court shall consider to be of authority on the subject to which they relate.

5.-Books printed or published under the authority of the govern- Foreign Law. ment of a foreign country, and purporting to contain the statutes, code, or other written law of such country, and also printed and published books of reports of decisions of the courts of such country, and books proved to be commonly admitted in such courts as evidence of the law of such country, shall be admissible as evidence of the law of such foreign. country.

6. All maps made under the authority of any government, or of any Public Mapa. public municipal body, and not made for the purpose of any litigated question, shall prima facie be deemed to be correct, and shall be admitted in evidence without further proof.

Affidavits.

LVI-Every affidavit used in the Court must be in the English In what

language.

Language.

2. It must be in the first person, and must be divided into paragraphs How divided. numbered consecutively.

to Witness.

3. Every affidavit used in the Court must contain only a statement Facts known of facts and circumstances as to which the witness swears, either on his own personal knowledge, or from information which he believes to be true.