725052-1856-HONGKONG-ANNO-VIGESIMO-VICTORIE-REGINE-NO-OF-1856 — Page 1

Bongkang

THE

Government

NEW SERIES.

GAZETTE.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 9TH AUGUST, 1856.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

VOL. II. No. 58.

The Contract for publishing this Gazette, entered into on the 24th September, 1853, was terminated on the 30th ultimo; and notice is hereby given, that a NEW SERIES of this Gazette will be published hereafter, to commence from the 7th instant, under a New Contract, and that

“THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE”

will, as before, be the only Official Organ for PROCLAMATIONS, NOTIFICATIONS, and PUBLIC PAPERS, of this Government.

By Order,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2d July, 1855.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.

The following Draft Ordinance, read a first time at a Meeting of the Legislative Council on the 31st Ultimo, is published for general information.

By order of His Excellency The Governor in Council,

Council Room, Victoria, Hongkong, 7th August, 1856..

L. D'ALMADA È CASTRO, Clerk of Councils.

HONGKONG.

ANNO VIGESIMO VICTORIE REGINÆ

No. of 1856..

By His Excellency SIR JOHN BOWRING, Knight, LL.D., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British Subjects in China, with the Advice of the Legislative Council of Hongkong.

An Ordinance for amending the Law of Evidence and Trial by Jury.

[ July, 1856.]

Be it enacted and ordained by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the Advice of the Legislative Council thereof, in manner following, that is to say:

1. The Act of Parliament passed in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of Her present Majesty, Extends 18 & 19. Chapter Forty-two, relating to Oaths administered and Notarial Acts done by Diplomatic and Consular Vict., c. 42, to this

Colony. Agents, shall, from and after the passing hereof, come into force within this Colony for all purposes whatsoever.

II. Whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Supreme Court, or of the Court of Petty Depositions may be Sessions, that the Person conducting a Criminal Prosecution on behalf of the Crown is merely, by reason of the read at Trial when illness or absence from the Colony of a Person whose Deposition shall have been duly taken in the matter, the Witness is too ill before or on the Committal of the Prisoner to take his Trial upon such Prosecution, unable to produce the to be produced. said Person as a Witness upon the said Trial, then and in such case the said Deposition may be read at the

said Trial as Evidence against the said Prisoner, if the said Court shall think fit.

III. A Heathen Witness, in any Court or before any Person empowered to administer an Oath, shall not Heathon Witnesses be sworn either before or upon giving his testimony, unless such Witness shall of his own accord express his not to be sworn but by

their express desire.. desire to be sworn, and unless the said Court or Person shall accede to such his desire, in which case the said Witness shall be sworn according to his conscience. But every such unsworn Witness shall, before the taking of his said Evidence, be by, or by the order of, the said Court or Person duly warned to speak the Truth, and informed of the Penalties to which, in case he shall not speak the Truth, he will become liable; it being hereby declared and enacted, that the Penalties of Perjury shall be deemed and taken to apply to False Testimony given by any such unsworn Witness in any case where, if he had given the same upon Oath, he would by Law have thereby become liable to the same.

IV. Where two or more conflicting or contradictory Statements of Fact, or alleged Fact, have been made Contradictory State- by one and the same Witness before any Court or Person empowered as aforesaid, either at the same Examin- ments by the same Witness may be pun ation or at two or more Examinations, an Indictment or Information may be presented or exhibited against ished as Perjury.. him, charging him with having, on the Day or Days of his said Examination or Examinations, wilfully and knowingly made the said conflicting or contradictory Statements, and setting forth the short material purport or effect thereof respectively; and if such Witness shall be thereof convicted in whole or in part, he shall suffer the Penalties of Perjury.