336
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 16

29. If any witness required by order of the Judge to give
    evidence before a Commissioner named in the order shall
    wilfully and without lawful excuse neglect or refuse to give
    his evidence at the time and place appointed by the Com-
    missioner, or to answer any relevant lawful questions put to
    him by such Commissioner, he shall be guilty of contempt of
    Court, and may be proceeded against in the same manner as
    is hereinbefore provided in Rules Nos. 23, 24, 25, and 26,
    in cases of witnesses who have been subpoenaed and have
    refused to attend or to give their evidence before the Court.
30. The costs of such commission and examination and
    cross-examination shall be in the discretion of the Judge.
31. The Judge may order the examination of any witness
    who is in custody in New Zealand to be taken before a Com-
    missioner named in the order, and may order the Gaoler or
    other officer in whose custody the witness is to bring him to
    the place named in the order, for examination.
32. On serving the said order there shall be paid or
    tendered to the officer aforesaid his reasonable charges for
    bringing such witness and consequent thereon.
33. Every question objected to before a Commissioner
    as an unlawful one shall nevertheless be taken down by
    the Commissioner, and the answer given thereto shall be
    set down after the said question, and the words " objected
    to " shall be written by the Commissioner in the margin
    opposite said question and answer.
34. The commission-order, together with the evidence
    attached thereto, shall be returned by the Commissioner to
    the Registrar of the Court within the time named in the
    order, or within such extended time as shall be allowed by
    the Judge.

Production of Registered Documents.

35. If any original document is in the custody of a public
    officer, whether as a registered or filed document or other-
    wise, and its production is not prohibited by statute and is
    required for evidence in any case pending before the Court,
    a subpoena may be issued by order of the Judge to the said
    public officer, requiring its production at the Court. Upon
    the service of said subpoena the said officer may enclose
    said document in a registered letter directed to the Regis-
    trar of the Court from whence the subpoena has been issued
    at his office. On receipt of same by said Registrar he shall
    become the lawful custodian of said document, and shall
    produce it in Court whenever required to do so by subpoena
    issued to him in the said case before the Court. On the
    conclusion of said case the said Registrar shall, by a regis-
    tered letter, return such document to the said public officer
    who had forwarded it to him, directed to said officer at the
    public office where said document is a filed or registered
    document.
36. In cases of appeal the said document, if required for
    use on such appeal, shall not be returned as last aforesaid,
    but shall instead be forwarded by registered letter to the
    Registrar of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, who
    shall on receipt of same become its custodian, and produce
    it to the said Court of Appeal whenever required to do so;
    and on the conclusion of the appeal he shall return it by
    registered letter to the said officer, its original custodian,
    at his public office, where such document is a filed or regis-
    tered document.
37. The Judge shall not give an order for the issue of a
    subpoena for production of any filed or registered original
    document unless it be shown to his satisfaction that it is
    necessary for the purposes of justice that the original docu-
    ment should be produced in Court at the hearing; and,
    unless in the opinion of the Judge the production of the
    original document itself is necessary, a copy thereof, certified
    as correct by the officer in whose custody said original docu-
    ment is filed or registered, shall be deemed sufficient and
    admissible in evidence for all purposes before the Court.

Court Lists and Lists for Chamber Motions.

38. A list shall from time to time be made by the Registrar
    of all applications filed with him for hearing by the Court.
    It shall show the day on which each application requires the
    objectors to appear, and each application shall take priority
    on said list in the order in which it was filed.
39. Applications shall be called on for hearing by the Court
    in the order of priority in which they stand on the list, but
    the Judge may advance or postpone the hearing of any ap-
    plication out of its proper order.
40. For convenience of parties and to facilitate the pro-
    ceedings before the Court, the Judge may from time to time
    limit the number of cases to be taken each day, or during
    the current week, and release from attendance meanwhile
    all persons interested in the remaining cases.
41. A list shall also from time to time be made by the
    Registrar of motions for hearing before the Judge in Cham-
    ber.

Practitioners.

42. The Judge may permit any practising barrister or soli-
    citor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand to practise in
    the Court as counsel, agent, or conductor for any litigants
    appearing before the Court. The Judge may also permit
    any person holding a license to practise in the Native Land
    Court under the hand of the Chief Judge of the Native Land
    Court to practise in the Court as agent or conductor for any
    Native. The Judge may also permit any Native or half-
    caste Native to appear as agent or conductor for his or her
    own wife, husband, parents, children, or cestuis que trustent
    or for any other Native or half-caste who has duly authorised
    him or her in writing to appear.
    But the Judge may refuse to permit to appear, or to
    practise, or may suspend from practice before the Court, any
    barrister, solicitor, agent, or conductor whomsoever for any
    time or in any case he shall think just.

Proceedings at Hearing.

43. When an application is called on before the Court for
    hearing, the persons who object to relief being granted to
    the applicant shall inform the Court that they appear as
    objectors, and thereupon such appearance shall be recorded
    upon the minutes of the proceedings. The Court shall then
    ascertain what objectors are named in the application on the
    file. The Court shall then inquire what notice to attend the
    proceedings have been given to the said named objectors who
    have failed to appear before the Court, and may if it think fit
    postpone the hearing or further hearing from time to time
    until it is satisfied that such reasonable notice as ought to be
    given to objectors has been given. It shall be the duty of the
    Court, before entering upon the consideration of the merits of
    the application, to ascertain that a printed copy of the appli-
    cation has been duly posted to every known objector whose
    rights may be affected by the decree of the Court, and whose
    last residence in New Zealand is known or ascertainable.
44. The names of all persons who appear before the Court
    at any time before final decree as objectors, but whose names
    have not been inserted by the applicant on his application,
    shall be indorsed by the Clerk of the Court in the application
    as objectors, together with the date of their first appearance
    before the Court as objectors.

Hearing-fees.

45. Unless the Judge shall otherwise determine, each
    party, before he opens his case, or examines or cross-examines
    any witness, shall pay to the Clerk the hearing and other
    fees each day payable to the Court according to the schedule
    to these rules.
46. When in the opinion of the Judge it would be just to
    proceed with an inquiry into the merits of any application,
    the Court, unless the Judge otherwise directs, shall first deal
    with the cases of the objectors who have up to that date ap-
    peared before it, and at the close of all the cases of the said
    objectors the Court shall deal with the cases of objectors in
    same block who have not appeared before the Court to con-
    test the claims of the applicant.

Uncontested Cases.

47. Where no objector entitled to contest the propriety of a
    transaction has appeared before the Court, and the Court is
    satisfied that such non-appearance is not caused by any
    neglect on the part of the applicant to bring the proceedings
    to the knowledge of the person interested in opposing, or is
    satisfied that all has been done that could be expected of the
    applicant to bring the said proceeding to such objector's
    knowledge, then the Court may validate such transaction,
    upon the following facts being shown:—
    A. That the deed, or other instrument in writing, dis-
    closing the transaction for validation, was signed and
    entered into by the persons who were parties to it and by
    whom it purports to have been signed.
    B. That said instrument is one which, had it been made
    between Europeans concerning lands held under Crown
    grant, would have been a valid and binding contract,
    capable of being enforced in the Supreme Court of New
    Zealand.
    C. That the consideration given was reasonably sufficient,
    and was a lawful consideration at the time when and under
    the circumstances in which the contract was made.
    D. That the contract made was not in any respect con-
    trary to equity and good conscience.
    The statements concerning the said instrument in any
    statutory declaration or affidavit made by a Maori and
    proved to have been signed by him may, in uncontested
    cases, be received by the Court as sufficient evidence of the
    facts set forth therein, and in all uncontested cases it may
    be presumed by the Court until the contrary is shown that
    the contract or agreement between the parties was properly
    understood at the time it was entered into by the contract-
    ing parties according to its true legal tenor and effect: but
    nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to prevent
    the Court from holding in any uncontested case that the
    said contract or agreement was not sufficient in law to bind
    the parties, or that its terms are contradictory, or are sus-
    ceptible of another and different meaning to that contended
    for by the applicant, or so as to prevent the Court from