Examinations.

14. The court may, in any action or matter where it shall appear necessary for the purposes of justice, make an order for the examination upon oath before the court or any officer of the court, or any other person and at any place in England or Wales, of any witness or person, and may empower any party to any such action or matter to give such deposition in evidence therein on such terms, if any, as the judge may direct.

15. Where the witness mentioned in the last preceding rule resides out of the jurisdiction of the court, the judge may appoint the registrar of the court in the district of which the witness resides to take the examination.

16. The court may in any action or matter at any stage of the proceedings order the attendance of any person for the purpose of being examined or of producing to or before any examiner any documents which the court may think fit to be produced: Provided that no person shall be compelled to produce under any such order any writing or other document which he could not be compelled to produce at the trial.

17. Any person wilfully disobeying any order requiring his attendance for the purpose of being examined or producing any document to or before an examiner shall be deemed guilty of contempt of court, and may be dealt with accordingly.

18. Any person required to attend before an examiner for the purpose of being examined or of producing any document, shall be entitled to the like conduct money and payment for expenses and loss of time as upon attendance at a trial in court.

19. Where any witness or person is ordered to be examined before any officer of a county court, or before any person appointed for the purpose, the person taking the examination shall be furnished by the party on whose application the order was made with a copy of the documents necessary to inform the person taking the examination of the questions at issue between the parties.

20. The examination shall take place in the presence of the parties, their counsel, solicitors, or agents, and

the witnesses shall be subject to cross-examination and re-examination.

21. The depositions taken before an officer of a county court, or before any other person appointed to take the examination, shall be taken down in writing by or in the presence of the examiner not ordinarily by question and answer, but so as to represent as nearly as may be the statement of the witness, and when completed shall be read over to the witness and signed by him in the presence of the parties, or such of them as may think fit to attend. If the witness shall refuse to sign the depositions, the examiner shall sign the same. The examiner may put down any particular question or answer if there should appear any special reason for doing so, and may put any question to the witness as to the meaning of any answer, or as to any matter arising in the course of the examination. Any questions which may be objected to shall be taken down by the examiner in the depositions, and he shall state his opinion thereon to the counsel, solicitors, or parties, and shall refer to such statement in the depositions, but he shall not have power to decide upon the materiality or relevancy of any question.

22. If any person duly summoned to attend for examination shall refuse to attend, or, if having attended, he shall refuse to be sworn or to answer any lawful question, a certificate of such refusal, signed by the examiner, shall be filed with the registrar, and thereupon the party requiring the attendance of the witness may apply to the judge for an order directing the witness to attend, or to be sworn, or to answer any question, as the case may be.

23. If any witness shall object to any question which may be put to him before an examiner, the question so put, and the objection of the witness thereto, shall be taken down by the examiner, and transmitted by him to the registrar to be there filed, and the validity of the objection shall be decided by the judge.

24. In any case under the two last preceding rules, the judge shall have power to order the witness to pay any costs occasioned by his refusal or objection.

25. When the examination of any witness before any

examiner shall have been concluded, the original depositions, authenticated by the signature of the examiner, shall be transmitted by him to the registrar to be filed.

26. The person taking the examination of a witness under these rules may, and if need be shall, make a special report to the court touching such examination and the conduct or absence of any witness or other person thereon, and the judge may direct such proceedings and make such order as upon the report he may think just.

27. Except where otherwise provided by this Order, or directed by the judge, no deposition shall be given in evidence at the trial of the action or matter without the consent of the party against whom the same may be offered, unless the judge is satisfied that the deponent is dead, or beyond the jurisdiction of the court, or unable from sickness or other infirmity to attend the trial, in any of which cases the depositions certified under the hand of the person taking the examination shall be admissible in evidence saving all just exceptions without proof of the signature to such certificate.

28. Any officer of the court, or other person directed to take the examination of any witness or person, may administer oaths.

ORDER XIX.
Affidavits.

1. All affidavits shall be expressed in the first person of the deponent, and be drawn up in paragraphs and numbered.

2. All affidavits, other than those for which forms are given in the appendix, shall state the deponent's age, occupation, quality, and place of residence, and also what facts or circumstances deposed to are within the deponent's own knowledge, and his means of knowledge, and what facts or circumstances deposed to are known to, or believed by him by reason of information derived from other sources than his own knowledge, and what such sources are.

3. Every affidavit shall be intituled in the action or

matter in which it is sworn; but in every case in which there are more than one plaintiff or defendant, it shall be sufficient to state the full name of the first plaintiff or defendant respectively, and that there are other plaintiffs or defendants, as the case may be; and the costs occasioned by any unnecessary prolixity in any such title shall be disallowed by the registrar on taxation.

4. It shall be stated in a note at the foot of every affidavit filed on whose behalf it is so filed, and such note shall be copied on every office or other copy furnished to a party.

5. The costs of affidavits not in conformity with the preceding rules of this Order shall be disallowed on taxation, unless the registrar shall otherwise direct.

6. Before any affidavit is used it shall be filed in the office of the registrar, but this rule shall not hinder a judge from making an order in an urgent case upon the undertaking of the applicant to file any affidavit sworn before the making of such order, provided that such order be not issued until such affidavit shall have been filed.

7. An affidavit shall not be filed which has been sworn before a commissioner who was at the time of the swearing of the same the solicitor acting for the party on whose behalf such affidavit is to be used, or the agent, correspondent, partner, or clerk of such solicitor, or who is the party himself.

8. No affidavit or other document which is blotted so as to obliterate any word, or which is illegibly written, or so altered as to cause it to be illegible, or in the body or jurat of which there is any interlineation, alteration, or erasure, unless the person before whom the same is sworn shall have duly initialled such interlineation or alteration, and in the case of an erasure shall have rewritten and signed in the margin of the affidavit or document the words or figures appearing to be written on the erasure, or which is so imperfect upon the face thereof by reason of having blanks thereon or otherwise that it cannot easily be read or understood, shall be filed or used in any action or matter, unless the judge or registrar shall otherwise order.

9. Where an affidavit is sworn by any person who appears to the officer taking the affidavit to be illiterate or blind, the officer shall certify in the jurat that the affidavit was read in his presence to the deponent, that the deponent seemed perfectly to understand it, and that the deponent made his signature in the presence of the officer. No such affidavit shall be used in evidence in the absence of this certificate, unless the judge is otherwise satisfied that the affidavit was read over to and appeared to be perfectly understood by the deponent.

10. Whenever a registrar rejects an affidavit or other document, he shall give notice, according to the form in the appendix, by post or otherwise, to the party offering the same for filing, of such rejection and the reasons thereof, but no such notice shall be necessary if the party offering the same is present when the registrar rejects the affidavit.

GOVERNMENT BILL TO AMEND THE LAW OF EVIDENCE, 1892.

The following is the Criminal Evidence Bill, which passed the House of Lords, and was read a second time in the House of Commons in 1892:

BE it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1.-(1.) Every person charged with an offence, and the wife or husband, as the case may be, of the person so charged, shall be a competent witness whether the person so charged is charged solely or jointly with any other person. Provided as follows: :

(a) A person so charged shall not be called as a witness in pursuance of this act without his consent;