212884-1934-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Jury-Amendment-Coroner-s-Abolition-Amendment — Page 6

659

P

to me that sufficient grounds are disclosed for charging C.D. of with the offence of

an offence punishable under section of the

Ordinance,

:

These are, therefore, to command you, the said constables, in His Majesty's name forthwith to convey the said C.D. to a prison, and there to deliver him to the Superintendent of Prisons, with this precept; and you, the said Superintendent, to receive the said C.D. into your custody in a prison, and there safely keep him until he shall be brought before me or such other magistrate as may then be sitting at the police court at

to be prosecuted for the said offence according to law on the day of

19 or on such other day not being more than seven days thereafter as may be directed by the magistrate before whom he is charged or until he shall earlier be thence discharged by due course of law, unless you shall otherwise be ordered in the meantime.

;

Dated this

(L.S.)

day of

(Signed)

19

1

Magistrate.

Objects and Reasons.

1. Section 2 of this Ordinance inserts a new section 2 in the principal Ordinance empowering the Governor in Council to make rules, similar to the power exercised in England by the Lord Chancellor with the concurrence of the Secretary of State under section 26 of the Coroners (Amendment) Act, 1926 (16 and 17 Geo. 5 c. 30), on which the section is based.

2. Section 3 of this Ordinance makes a verbal amendment in section 4 of the principal Ordinance, rendered necessary by the appointment of more than two magistrates.

3. Section 5 of this Ordinance substitutes for section 8 of the principal Ordinance a new section, of which sub-section (1), based on section 5 of the Capital Punishment Amendment Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 24), relates to inquiries on the bodies of prisoners who have suffered capital punishment, and sub-section (2), founded on section 3 of the Coroners Act. 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 71), to deaths in prison. Old section 8, which applied to both classes of inquiry, required an inquiry to be held within 24 hours of the death (or 48 hours if a Sun- day intervened), but as it has been found impracticable to summon a jury within this period for all inquiries into deaths in prison, the provision has, as in England, been restricted in new section 8 to inquiries on the bodies of executed offenders.

Sub-section (3) of new section 8 removes a doubt as to whether a "view" is required in inquiries under sub-sections (1) and (2) of that section.

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.

Old section 8 originally required a view of the body in the cases to which it applied; but section 30 of the Schedule to the Law Revision Ordinance, No. 5 of 1924, authorised the dele- tion of the words "view the body and”.