Jan. 15.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 33

Despatch.—"Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890."

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 7th January, 1891.

THE following despatch, received from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, is pub-
lised for general information.

W. R. RUSSELL.

(Circular.) Downing Street, 25th August, 1890.

SIR,—I have the honour to transmit herewith, for publica-
tion in the colony under your government, a copy of "The
Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890" (53 and 54 Vict., c. 37), to
which I think it right to draw your attention, as some of its
provisions bear upon colonial matters.

For the convenience of your Government I also enclose a
copy of an explanatory memorandum by the Parliamentary
Counsel.

I have, &c.,

KNUTSFORD.

The Officer Administering the Government of
New Zealand.

FOREIGN JURISDICTION CONSOLIDATION BILL.—MEMO-
RANDUM.

THE object of this Bill is to consolidate the Foreign Jurisdic-
tion Acts, with such amendments only as are necessarily
incidental to the process of consolidation. The amendments
appear from the following notes:—

Section 4. The words "or held under the authority of
Her Majesty" are added to include Courts established under
the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts.

Section 5. "The Evidence by Commission Act, 1885," has
been added to the Acts comprised in the Schedule to "The
Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1878," as being an enactment
amending the Acts in that Schedule.

Section 6. Words have been added giving power to define,
by Order in Council, what is meant by the expression "su-
preme criminal Court."

Section 7. In consequence of the alteration of the law
with respect to penal servitude, sections 5 and 6 of "The
Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1843," cannot be exactly repro-
duced. The new section reproduces in substance the power
given by those sections of removing offenders for punish-
ment, but substitutes the machinery provided by the more
recent Colonial Prisoners' Removal Act of 1869.

Section 12. This section sets out the provisions of 28 and
29 Vict., c. 63, instead of applying them by reference.

Sections 17, 18. The Acts 24 and 25 Vict., c. 31, as to
territories near Sierra Leone, and 26 and 27 Vict., c. 35, as
to certain portions of South Africa, are practically super-
seded by section 5 of "The Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1878"
(41 and 42 Vict., c. 67), which would extend to the whole of
Africa, and not merely to the limited portions mentioned in
the above Acts. Accordingly an Order in Council could at
any time supersede the provisions of those Acts. The Act
20 and 21 Vict., c. 75, as to Siam, would have been unneces-
sary if the Order in Council to which it referred had been
made since the passing of the latter Act, 29 and 30
Vict., c. 87, s. 1 (reproduced by section 9). The amending
Act, 33 and 34 Vict., c. 55, merely declared what Court was
to exercise jurisdiction under the previous Order in Council.
This might now be done by a supplemental Order in Council.
Accordingly it is proposed to repeal all these Acts as Acts,
but to leave them in force as if they were Orders in Council
issued under the present Bill. A precedent for this course
may be found in 37 and 38 Vict., c. 29, s. 3.

Sections 6 and 7 of "The Pacific Islanders Protection Act,
1875" (38 and 39 Vict., c. 51), are in much the same posi-
tion; but, as the powers given by section 6 were mostly to
be exercised by Orders in Council, slightly different language
is required.

CHAPTER 37.

An Act to consolidate the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts.
[4th August, 1890.

WHEREAS by treaty, capitulation, grant, usage, sufferance,
and other lawful means, Her Majesty the Queen has juris-
diction within divers foreign countries, and it is expedient
to consolidate the Acts relating to the exercise of Her Ma-
jesty's jurisdiction out of her dominions:

BE IT THEREFORE 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 Par-
liament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:—

Exercise of jurisdiction in foreign country.

1. It is and shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen to
   hold, exercise, and enjoy any jurisdiction which Her Ma-
   jesty now has or may at any time hereafter have within a
   foreign country in the same and as ample a manner as if
   Her Majesty had acquired that jurisdiction by the cession or
   conquest of territory.

Exercise of jurisdiction over British subjects in countries without
regular governments.

2. Where a foreign country is not subject to any govern-
   ment from whom Her Majesty the Queen might obtain
   jurisdiction in the manner recited by this Act, Her Majesty
   shall by virtue of this Act have jurisdiction over Her Ma-
   esty's subjects for the time being resident in or resorting to
   that country, and that jurisdiction shall be jurisdiction of
   Her Majesty in a foreign country within the meaning of the
   other provisions of this Act.

Validity of acts done in pursuance of jurisdiction.

3. Every act and thing done in pursuance of any jurisdic-
   tion of Her Majesty in a foreign country shall be as valid as
   if it had been done according to the local law then in force
   in that country.

Evidence as to existence or extent of jurisdiction in foreign
country.

4. (1.) If in any proceeding, civil or criminal, in a Court in
   Her Majesty's dominions, or held under the authority of Her
   Majesty, any question arises as to the existence or extent of
   any jurisdiction of Her Majesty in a foreign country, a
   Secretary of State shall, on the application of the Court,
   send to the Court within a reasonable time his decision on
   the question, and his decision shall for the purposes of the
   proceeding be final.

(2.) The Court shall send to the Secretary of State, in a
document under the seal of the Court, or signed by a Judge
of the Court, questions framed so as properly to raise the
question, and sufficient answers to those questions shall be
returned by the Secretary of State to the Court, and those
answers shall, on production thereof, be conclusive evidence
of the matters therein contained.

Power to extend enactments in First Schedule.

5. (1.) It shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen in
   Council, if she thinks fit, by order, to direct that all or any
   of the enactments described in the First Schedule to this
   Act, or any enactments for the time being in force amending
   or substituted for the same, shall extend, with or without any
   exceptions, adaptations, or modifications in the order men-
   tioned, to any foreign country in which for the time being
   Her Majesty has jurisdiction.

(2.) Thereupon those enactments shall, to the extent of
that jurisdiction, operate as if that country were a British
possession, and as if Her Majesty in Council were the Legis-
lature of that possession.

Power to send persons charged with offences for trial to a British
possession.

6. (1.) Where a person is charged with an offence recog-
   nisable by a British Court in a foreign country, any person
   having authority derived from Her Majesty in that behalf
   may, by warrant, cause the person so charged to be sent for
   trial to any British possession for the time being appointed
   in that behalf by Order in Council, and, upon the arrival of
   the person so charged in that British possession, such cri-
   minal Court of that possession as is authorised in that
   behalf by Order in Council, or, if no Court is so authorised,
   the supreme criminal Court of that possession, may cause
   him to be kept in safe and proper custody, and so soon as
   conveniently may be may inquire of, try, and determine the
   offence, and on conviction punish the offender according to
   the laws in force in that behalf within that possession, in the
   same manner as if the offence had been committed within
   the jurisdiction of that criminal Court.

Provided that—

(a.) A person so charged may, before being so sent for
trial, tender for examination to a British Court in
the foreign country where the offence is alleged to
have been committed any competent witness whose
evidence he deems material for his defence, and
whom he alleges himself unable to produce at the
trial in the British possession:

(b.) In such case the British Court in the foreign country
shall proceed in the examination and cross-exami-
ation of the witness as though he had been ten-
dered at a trial before that Court, and shall cause
the evidence so taken to be reduced into writing,
and shall transmit to the criminal Court of the
British possession by which the person charged is
to be tried a copy of the evidence, certified as cor-
rect under the seal of the Court before which the
evidence was taken, or the signature of a Judge of
that Court:

(c.) Thereupon the Court of the British possession before
which the trial takes place shall allow so much of
the evidence so taken as would have been admis-
sible according to the law and practice of that Court
had the witness been produced and examined at the
trial to be read and received as legal evidence at
the trial:

(d.) The Court of the British possession shall admit and
give effect to the law by which the alleged offender
would have been tried by the British Court in the