Directory_and_Chronicle_1915 — Page 403

410

In case of death, &c.. of witness, his deposition

may be read at the trial.

Dying decl ira- tion.

Evidence in

civil case of person dead or insane.

Statements of

ence against himself.

RULES OF SUPREME COURT IN CHINA

accused of its intention to take such person's statement, in order that such accused (who, if in prison, is to be brought to the place), or his legal practitioner, may have full opportunity of attending and cross- examining; and shall, at the appointed time and place, take down the statement on oath of such sick person, and sign it, and add thereto by way of heading a statement of the reason for taking the deposition. Then, if at the trial of the offender or offence to which the statement relates, the deponent is proved to be dead, or that there is no reasonable probability of his ever being able to attend and give evidence, and that the defendant had notice and the opportunity of cross-examination, the statement may be read in evidence, either for or against the accused, without further proof.

10. When a witness has been examined and his deposition taken down and signel, as prescribed by these Rules, and it shall be proved upon the trial, by the oath of any credible witness, that such witness is dead, or out of the jurisdiction, or so ill as not to be able to travel, and if it also be proved that the deposition was taken in the presence of the accused, and that he or his legal practitioner had a full opportunity of cross-examining the witness, then if the deposition purport to be signed by the Court before which it was taken, it shall be lawful to read such deposition as evidence at the trial, without further proof, unless it shall be proved that the deposition was not in fact signed by the Court purporting to have signed the same.

11. In any case in which a person is dying, in consequence of injuries received from another, he may make a declaration orally or in writing to any officer of the Court, surgeon, minister of religion, or other competent person, who may subsequently prove the declaration, which may then, in case of the death of the declarant, be used as evidence in any trial arising out of the injuries inflicted on him.

In order to render this declaration admissible, three material points inust be insisted on, viz. :-

(1) The inquiry must relate to the cause of the death of the declarant;

(2) The circumstances leading to the death must be the subject of the declaration; and

(3) At the time of making the declaration, the declarant must be perfectly aware of his dinger, and entertain no hope of recovery.

Such a declaration is not to be on oath.

12. In a civil case, where a person whose evidence would have been admissible is dead or insane, or for any reason appearing sufficient to the Court is not present to give evidence, the Court may, if it thinks it, receive proof of any evidence given by him in any former judicial proceeding; provided that the subject-matter of the former proceeding was substantially the same as that of the pending proceeding, and that the parties to the pending proceeding were parties to the former proceed ing or bound by it, and had an opportunity in it of cross-examining the person of whose evidence proof is so to be given.

13. In a criminal case, any statement made by the accused at a accused; evid preliminary examination, in answer to the questions put to him by the Court, as prescribed by these Rules, may be given in evidence against him at the trial; but nothing in these Rules shall prevent the prosecutor from giving in evidence at the trial any admission or confession, or other statement of the accused made at any time, which would, by law, be admissible as evidence against him.

Evidence in civil

cases before

trial.

14.—(1) In a civil case, where the circumstances of the case appear to the Court so to require, for reasons recorded in the Minutes, the