Page:The Evidence (Sarawak) Order 1961.pdf/1




 * At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 24th day of October, 1961


 * Present,

The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council Whereas Her Majesty in Council is satisfied upon consideration of a report from the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for the Colonies that, having regard to the law of the Colony of Sarawak as to the recognition therein of public registers of the United Kingdom as authentic records and as to the proof of the contents of such registers and other matters by means of duly authenticated certificates issued by the public officers in the United Kingdom, it is desirable in the interests of reciprocity to make with respect to public registers of the Colony of Sarawak and certificates issued by public officers in or in respect of the said Colony such provision as is hereinafter mentioned:

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by virtue and in the exercise of the powers conferred on Her by the Evidence (Foreign, Dominion and Colonial Documents) Act, 1933, and all other powers in that behalf in Her vested, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:

1. The registers of the Colony of Sarawak specified in the first column of the Schedule to this Order shall be deemed to be public registers kept under the authority of the law of the Colony and recognised by the courts thereof as authentic records, and to be documents of such a public nature as to be admissible as evidence of the matters regularly recorded therein.

2. For the purposes of the preceding Article all matters recorded in the register shall be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to be regularly recorded.

3. Subject to any requirements of rules of court, a document which purports to be issued in the Colony of Sarawak as an official copy of an entry in a register specified in the first column of the Schedule to this Order and which purports to be authenticated by an officer of the Colony in the manner specified in that Schedule, shall, without evidence as to the custody of the register or of inability to produce it and without any further or other proof, be received as evidence that the register contains such an entry.

4. Nothing in this Order shall be taken to prohibit or restrict the admission in evidence of any copy, extract, summary, certificate or other document whatsoever which, apart from the provisions of this Order, would be admissible as evidence of any particular matter, or to affect any power which,