725091-1856-HONGKONG-ANNO-VIGESIMO-VICTORIE-REGINE-NO-15-OF-1856 — Page 1

THE

Bongkong

NEW SERIES.

Government

GAZETTE.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 23D AUGUST, 1856.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

VOL. II. No. 60.

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 Coatract, 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,

W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.

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

*

HONGKONG.

ANNO VIGESIMO VICTORIE REGINE.

No. 15 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.

[22d 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:

1. So much of the Act of Parliament passed in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of Her present Extends 18 & 19 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, legally and properly filed or recorded in any Foreign Court of Justice Foreign Instruments. or Consulate according to the Law and Practice of such Court or Consulate, and all Copies of such Instru- ments, shall be admissible in evidence within this Colony, upon being proved in like manner as Documents filed or recorded in any Foreign Court are proveable under this or any other Ordinance; and all Documents whatsoever so filed or recorded in any Foreign Court or Consulate, and all Copies of such Documents, shall, when so proved and admitted, be holden as authentic and effectual for all purposes of évidence 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

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 order of the Court. 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 Witness, whether sworn or unsworn, in any case where, if he had given the same upon Oath, he would by Law have thereby become liable to the same.

V. Where two or more conflicting or contradictory Statements of Fact, or alleged Fact, have been Contradictory State- wilfully and knowingly made by one and the same Witness before any Court or Person empowered as aforements by the same Witness may be pun- aid, either at the same Examination or at two or more Examinations, and whether before the same Court shed as Perjury. or Person, or before any other Court or Person, an Indictment or Information may be presented or exhibited gainst 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 cffect thereof respectively; and if such Witness shall be thereof convicted in whole or in piri, he shall suffer the Penalties of Perjury.

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