661078-1888-Bill-read-Coroner-s-Abolition-Ordinance- — Page 2

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 21ST APRIL, 1888.

Summoning Juries.

(7 of 68, 5; 11 of 64, 98.)

(7 of 68, 4.)

Procedure with a Jury.

Procedure. (31 V. c. 24. 8. 5.)

Adjourn- ments.

(7 of 68, 6.)

Powers of Magistrate.

Burlala.

(45 and 46 V. c. 19, 58, 2, 4. }

inquisition abolished.

Copies of depositions. (22 Y. a. 31. 8. 3.)

Trial &c.

when cause of death was out of the Colony. (6 V. c. 12. B. 3.)

Fees for medical evidence.

(7 of 68, 8.)

9. The Magistrate's clerk shall, before the holding of any enquiry under this Ordinance at which a jury may be necessary, issue forms of Summons according to the form in the Schedule hereto, requiring the attendance of the jurors drawn, and every such Summons shall be personally served upon or left at the usual place of abode of the juror so summoned. Any juror failing without reasonable excuse to attend at such enquiry or at any adjournment thereof shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars, which may be recovered in a summary way before a Magistrate, but the Magistrate before whom the juror is required to attend may remit such fine if he see fit so to do. The Magistrate shall select the three jurors required from the panel by ballot, and may, if necessary, require any bystander to serve as a juror, but no officer of the Gaol or prisoner confined therein shall serve as a juror in any such enquiry.

10. The Jury required by the foregoing section may be sworn or declared according to the form of oath or declaration provided in the Schedule hereto, which may be administered to two or more Jurors at once.

11. The jury shall enquire into and ascertain the identity of the body, and the cause of death, and shall sign their verdict when reduced to writing by the Magistrate. A cer- tified copy of such verdict shall be delivered by the Magis- trate to the Superintendent of the Gaol.

12. The Magistrate may adjourn any enquiry from time to time, and may, if he consider it necessary, use the same jury for a second enquiry.

13. The Magistrate shall have, in relation to the enquiries provided for in sections 7 and 8 the same powers in all respects as he possesses or may possess in relation to any other proceedings taken before him, and may, at the con- clusion of any such enquiry, commit any person for trial at the Supreme Court without further proceedings before himself or any other Magistrate.

14. The Magistrate shall not order the interment of the body of any person otherwise than in some public cemetery within the Colony, and in the ordinary and customary manner in which persons of the same nationality are com- monly interred, provided always that this section shall not be so construed as to require the performance of any religious rite at the interment of the body of any person buried by order of a Magistrate under this Ordinance, or to alter the laws and usages relating to religious ceremonies at the burial of such persons.

15. No Inquisition shall be necessary in any enquiry by a Magistrate under this Ordinance, and no committal under this Ordinance by any Magistrate shall be held to be bad on the ground that no Inquisition was drawn up.

16. Any person who may have been committed for trial at the Supreme Court by any Magistrate under this Ordinance on a charge of murder or manslaughter shall be entitled to have at any time from the Magistrates' Clerk copies of the depositions on which such committal shall have been made, on payment of a reasonable sum for the same, not exceeding five cents for every folio of ninety words.

17. When any person shall be committed for trial at the Supreme Court by a Magistrate under this Ordinance on a charge of murder or manslaughter, or as accessory before the fact to any murder, in any case in which the cause of the death enquired into did not arise within the Colony, the Magistrate, the Judges and Officers of the Supreme Court, and all other persons or authorities shall have the same powers respectively for the commitment of, trial of, and execution of the sentence upon the person so charged as they now or hereafter may by law possess in relation to the commitment of, trial of, and execution of the sentence upon any person committed and tried for murder or manslaughter where the cause of death arose within the Colony.

18. The following fees shall be payable to any duly qualified medical practitioner not an officer of the Govern- ment of the Colony who has made any autopsy in pursuance of an order from the Magistrate under Section 6, or who has attended any enquiry, ou Summons, as a medical witness ;-

For an autopsy.............

.$10

For attendance to give evidence......$ 5

I