204319-1933-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Jury-Amendment-Coroner-s-Abolition-Amendment — Page 3

1240

C.S.O. 3654/29.

Short title.

Amendment of Ordin- ance No. 5 of 1888,

s. 8.

A BILL

INTITULED

[No. 38-2.12.33.—1.]

An Ordinance to amend the Coroner's Abolition Ordinance,

1888.

BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Coroner's Aboli- tion Amendment Ordinance, 1934.

2. Section 8 of the Coroner's Abolition Ordinance, 1888, is amended by the addition of the following words at the end thereof:

At such inquiry the Coroner shall view the body; but it shall not be necessary for the jury to view the body unless it appears to the magistrate or to the greater number of the jurors expedient that the jury should do so.

Objects and Reasons.

1. 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.

2. Section 8 which provides for cases of inquiries into deaths in gaol originally required a view of the body in such cases; 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'.

3. It is open to question whether this alteration by a Revision Ordinance had the effect of abolishing the view in cases under section 8; especially as section 4 imposes on magistrates the duties which a Coroner had by law at the com- mencement of the Ordinance, one of those duties being a view of the body (The King v. Haslewood 1926 II K.B. 468).

4. In the Straits Settlements by section 326 (2) of Ordin- ance 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.

5. In the circumstances it is considered desirable to add to section 8 of the principal Ordinance 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.

C. G. ALABASTER,

December, 1933.

Attorney General.