the-ordinances-of-the-legislative-counci-1890 — Page 400

364 ORDINANCE No. 15 OF 1856 .


Evidence- Trial by Jury.


No. 15 of 1856.

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

[ 22nd August, 1856. ]

E it enacted and ordained by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the
BR 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
Vict., c. 42, to
this Colony. years of Her present Majesty, chapter forty-two, relating to oaths administered and
notarial acts done by Diplomatic and Consular agents, as is not now in force within this
Colony, shall, from and after the passing hereof, come into force within the same.
Foreign instru 2. All instruments whatsoever, legally and properly filed or recorded in any
ments.
Foreign Court of Justice or Consulate according to the law and practice of such Court
or Consulate, and all copies of such instruments , 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 evidence as the same would be holden in such Court or
Consulate.
Depositions may 3. Whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Supreme Court, or of the
be read at trial
when the
witness is absent Court of Petty Sessions, that the person conducting a criminal prosecution on behalf
or too ill to be
produced. of the Crown is merely, by reason of the illness or absence from the Colony of, or the
impracticability of serving process on, a person whose deposition 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 4. A heathen witness, in any Court or before any person empowered to administer
witnesses not to
be sworn but by an oath, shall not be sworn either before or upon giving his testimony, unless the said
order of the
Court.
Court or person shall think fit so to 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 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.
Contradictory 5. Where two or more conflicting or contradictory statements of fact, or alleged
statements by
the same witness
may be punished fact, have been wilfully and knowingly made by one and the same witness before any
as perjury,
Court or person empowered as aforesaid, either at the same examination or at two or
more examinations, and whether before the same Court or person, or before any other