Commissioners for Affidavits Act 1859 (SA)

ANNO VICESIMO SECUNDO ET VICESIMO TERTIO

A. D. 1859.

No. 23.

An Act to provide for the Appointment of Commissiolzers to take

Afldauits as well ilz 8outh Australia as elsewhere, to be made use of in the Supreme Court qf South Australia, and for the

more easy Administration of Oaths to Persons appointed to

act as Justices qf the Peace in &'oath Australia.

[Assented to, 1st September,. 1859.1

HEREAS, by the General Rules of the Supreme Court of Preamble.

W South Australia, made in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty, it is provided that all answers in Equity, and all

affidavits in the Supreme Court, whether made in its civil, or criminal,

or in its common law, or equitable jurisdiction, may be sworn,

either in open Court, or before a Judge or a Master thereof, or bcfore

a Commissioner appointed by the Judge or Judges of the Supreme

Court, for the purpose of taking affidavits therein: And whereas,

by an Act 'L To amend the practice and proceedings in the Equi-

table Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of South Australia," passed No. 14, a. 33, of 1853.

in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-three, it is	Y
enacted, that all pleas, answers, disclaimers, and examinations upon
oath, taken within the jurisdiction of the Court, may Fe taken in
open Court, or before a Judge, or the Master, or some Commissioner
of the Court authorized to take affidavits: And whereas, by the
Act No. 9 of the year one thousand cight hundred and fifty-six,

intituled " An Act to give further remedies against creditors	No.	9 of 1856.
removing from one Australian Colony to another," the Judge or Judges of the Supreme Court are authorized to appoint Commis- sioners, resident in any of the Australian Colonies, for taking affidavits in the several matters therein mentioned: And whereas it is expedient to make a more general provision for the appointment of Commissioners for taking affidavits as well in the Province of

T 2 south

South Australia as in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and ekwhcre out of the said Province, to be used in the Supreme Court of the said Province; and to provide for the more easy taking of the oaths of office and of allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen, by persons appointed to be Justices of the Peace in the said Province-Be i t therefore Enacted, by the Governor-in-Chief of the Province of South Australia, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the said Pro- vince, in this present Parliament assembled, as follows:-

Judges of Supreme 1. The Chief Justice and other the Judges of the said Supreme

Court may appoint

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to take Conrt, for thc time being, or any two of them, whereof the Chief Justiue for the time being skdll be one, may, by Commission under the seal of the said Courb, from time to time empower such persons as they shall think fit and necessary, as wdl within the said Province aswithout the same, to take and receive all such affidavits as any person shall be willing and desirous to mal~e before any of the persons so empowered, in or concerning any cause, matter, or thing dcpending, or hereafter to be depending in the said Conrt, which mid afitlavits shall be filed in the office of the said Court, and then be read and made use of in the said Court to all intents as affidavits taken in thc said Court now are, and all and every person or persons wilfully for- swearing himsclf in any such affidavit, taken within the said Province,

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affidavits.

shall incur and be liable to the same punishment as if such affidavit

had been taken in open Court.

Persona appointed to

be Justice8 of the 2, The oaths of office and of allegiance to Her Majesty the Qiieen,

peacc tkcoatha to be taken by persons appointed to bc Justices of the Peace in the

of ofice, &C., before

Commissioners.	said Province, may be taken either in open Court or before any
Judge of the Supreme Court, or in the mse of a person appointed

4 /8(-Pj~7a to act as a Justice of the Peace for the said Province, who resides

6.6	then before a, Commissioner, appointed in manner aforesaid to take morethan twenty miles from the Supreme Court House in Adelaide,
affidavits in the Supreme Court, and in such last-mentioned case, the said oaths of office and of allegiance, shall be subscribed by the

person taking the same, in the presence of and attested by the Com-

missioner before whom they were taken, and forthwith transmitted to the Master of the said Court, to be kept with the roll of Justices

of' the Peace for the said Province.

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Adelaide: Printed by authority, by W. C. Car, Government Printer, Yictmiaaqunra