Submarine Telegraph Act 1885

8 Evidence

(1) Any document drawn up in pursuance of Article seven or Article ten of the schedule to this Act shall be admissible in any proceeding, civil or criminal, as prima facie evidence of the facts or matters therein stated.

(2) If evidence contained in any such document was taken on oath in the presence of the person charged in such evidence, and such person had an opportunity of cross-examining the person giving such evidence and of making his reply to such evidence, the officer drawing up such document may certify the said facts, or any of them.

(3) Any document or certificate in this section mentioned purporting to be signed by an officer authorised to act under the Schedule to this Act for carrying into effect the Convention, shall be admissible in evidence without proof of such signature, and, if purporting to be signed by any other person, shall, if certified by any such officer to have been so signed, be deemed until the contrary is proved to have been signed by such other person.

(4) If any person forges the signature of any such officer to any such document as above mentioned, or makes use of any such document knowing the signature thereto to be forged, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months with or without hard labour, and on conviction on indictment to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years.