10. As against any defendant who consents to trial without
    summons, an action duly commenced by the filing of a statement
    of claim may be tried and determined without the issue or service
    of any summons.

11. No pleadings other than the statement of claim shall be
    required in any action.

12. The Court may require a plaintiff at or before the trial of
    the action to file a fuller and more explicit statement of his claim,
    and may stay further proceedings in the action until this has been
    done.

13. A plaintiff may at any time before or during the trial amend
    his statement of claim with the leave of the Court.

14. The summons to a defendant may, as the Registrar thinks
    fit, be served either by an officer of the Court or by the plaintiff or
    his agent. Proof of service may be made either by affidavit or by a
    witness at the trial.

15. The summons shall be served on the defendant in person.
    Where there are more defendants than one, a separate summons
    shall, except in the case of a firm of partners, be issued and served
    on each defendant.

16. The summons may be served upon a corporation by leaving
    the same at any place of business of the corporation.

17. When partners are sued as partners they may be sued either
    in the firm-name or in the names of the partners, and in either case
    the summons may be served by delivering it to any one of the part
    ners or by leaving it at any place of business of the firm.

18. When a defendant is not in the Cook Islands but has in
    those islands an attorney or agent authorized to defend actions on
    his behalf, the summons may by leave of the Court be served upon
    such attorney or agent.

19. The summons may be served anywhere in the Cook Islands,
    but not elsewhere except in accordance with the provisions herein-
    after contained for service outside those islands.

20. If it appears to the Court that reasonable efforts have been
    made to effect service of the summons, and either that the summons
    has come to the knowledge of the defendant or that prompt personal
    service thereof cannot be effected, the Court may order that the
    plaintiff be at liberty to proceed as if personal service had been
    effected, subject to such conditions as the Court thinks fit to
    impose.

21. A summons may be served out of the Cook Islands by leave
    of the Court—

(a.) Where the cause of action or some material part thereof has
arisen in the Cook Islands:

(b.) Where the subject-matter of the action is property situated
in the Cook Islands:

(c.) Where it is sought to compel or restrain the performance of
any act in the Cook Islands:

(d.) In a suit for divorce under Part XIX of the Cook Islands
Act, 1915.

22. Every application for an order for leave to serve a summons
    out of the Cook Islands shall be supported by evidence by
    affidavit or otherwise, showing in what place or country the de-
    fendant is or probably may be found, and whether the defendant is
    a British subject or not, and the grounds on which the application
    is made.

23. If in any action a summons has become inoperative by reason
    of not being served in due time, or if for any other reason it is con-
    sidered expedient to issue a further summons to the same defendant,
    a further summons may be issued accordingly in the same manner
    as if no previous summons had been issued.

24. No action shall be deemed improperly constituted because of
    the joinder of plaintiffs or defendants or of different causes of action;
    but the Court may, in any case in which such joinder is considered
    embarrassing or otherwise inexpedient, order any party or cause of
    action to be struck out.

25. Where there are numerous persons having the same interest
    in an action one or more of them may sue or be sued, or may be
    authorized by the Court to defend in such action, on behalf of or for
    the benefit of all persons so interested.

26. The Court may at any stage of the proceedings, either upon
    or without the application of either party, and on such terms as
    appear to the Court to be just, order that the name of any party,
    whether a plaintiff or a defendant, improperly joined be struck out,
    and that the name of any person who ought to have been joined, or
    whose presence before the Court may be necessary to enable the