Evidence (Amendment) Act 1966 (NSW)

EVIDENCE (AMENDMENT) ACT.

Act No. 1, 1966.

An Act to make certain trade and business records admissible as evidence in criminal proceedings; to amend the Evidence Act, 1898, as amended by subsequent Acts; and for purposes connected therewith. [Assented to, 9th March, 1966.]

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the "Evidence (Amend­

ment) Act, 1966".

(2) The Evidence Act, 1898, as amended by subsequent Acts and by this Act, may be cited as the Evidence Act, 1898-1966.

1. The Evidence Act, 1898, as amended by subsequent

Acts, is amended—

(a)	(i)	by inserting in the matter relating to Part IIA
in section one after the word "Issue" the words "in Civil Proceedings";
(ii)	by inserting next after the same matter the
following new matter : —

PART IIB.—Admissibility of Documentary
Evidence as to Facts in Issue in

Criminal Proceedings—ss. 14CA-14CC.

(b)	by inserting in subsection two of section three after
the figures "1954," the words "or the Evidence (Amendment) Act, 1966,";

(c)	by inserting at the end of the heading to Part IIA tiie words "in Civil Proceedings";
(d)	by inserting next after Part IIA the following new Part: —

PART

I I B .

Admissibility of Documentary Evidence as to Facts

in Issue in Criminal Proceedings.

14CA. In this Part of this Act—

"Business" includes any public transport, public utility or similar undertaking carried on by the Crown or a statutory body representing the Crown within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1919, as amended by subsequent Acts, or a municipal, shire or county council within the meaning of that Act, as so amended.

"Court" means the court, judge, justice or person
before whom proceedings are taken or held.

"Document" includes any device by means of

which information is recorded or stored.
"Statement" includes any representation of fact,
whether made in words or otherwise.

14CB. (1) In any criminal proceedings, the hearing of which commences after the commence­ ment of the Evidence (Amendment) Act, 1966,

where direct oral evidence of a fact would be
admissible, any statement contained in a document and tending to establish that fact shall, on produc­ tion of the document, be admissible as evidence of that fact if—
(a)	the document is, or forms part of, a record relating to any trade or business and com­ piled, in the course of that trade or business, from information supplied (whether directly or indirectly) by persons who had,

or

or may reasonably be supposed to have had, personal knowledge of the matters dealt with in the information they supplied; and

(b)	the person who supplied the information recorded in the statement in question is dead, or beyond the seas, or unfit by reason of his bodily or mental condition to attend as…