725073-1856-HONGKONG-ANNO-VIGESIMO-VICTORIE-REGINE-No-of-1856- — Page 1

Bongkong

THE

Government

NEW SERIES.

GAZETTE.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 16TH AUGUST, 1856.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

VOL. II. No. 59.

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 subjoined Draft Ordinance, as amended by the Legislative Council on the 11th Instant, is hereby published for general information.

By Order,

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

Council Room, Victoria, Hongkong, 13th August, 1856.

HONGKONG.

ANNO VIGESIMO VICTORIE REGINA.

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.

[ August, 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 :—

Extends 18 & 19

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

Colony. Consular Agents, as is not now in force within this Colony, shall, from and after the passing hereof, come into force within the same.

II. All Instruments whatsoever filed or recorded in any Foreign Court of Justice or Consulate shall be Foreign Instruments. admissible in evidence within this Colony, upon being proved in like manner as Documents filed or recorded

in any Foreign Court are now proveable; and all Documents whatsoever filed or recorded in any Foreign Court or Consulate under this or any other Ordinance shall, when so proved and admitted, be holden as authentic and effectual for all purposes as the same would be holden in such Court or Consulate.

Witness is absent or

III. 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 the illness or absence from the Colony of, or the impracticability of serving process on, a Person whose Deposition too ill to be produced. shall have been duly taken in the matter, before or on the Committal of the Prisoner to take his Trial upon such Prosecution, unable to produce the 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.

Heathen Witnesses

order of the Court.

IV. A Heathen Witness, in any Court or before any Person empowered to administer an Oath, shall not be sworn either before or upon giving his Testimony, unless the said Court or Person shall think fit so to not to be sworn but by direct; in which case the said Witness shall be sworn according to his Conscience. But every Heathen 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, be 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 Witness, whether sworn or unsworn, in any case where, if he had given the same upon Ŏath, he would by Law have thereby become liable to the same.

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