Hawkes Bay Herald WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1878.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 4086, 9 January 1878, Page 2

Hawkes Bay Herald WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1878.

A mong the enactments of last session there is one entitled " The Bankei's' Books Evidence Act." Its object is to obviate what in the preamble is stated to be the " serious inconvenience [that] has been occasioned to bankers and also to the public by reason of the ledgers and other account-books having been removed from the banks for the purpose of being produced in legal proceedings." The Act provides that the entries in the books of a bank shall be admissible in all legal proceedings as prima facie evidence of the matters recorded therein, on proof being given by the affidavit of a partner or officer of thejbank that the books are the ordinary books of the bank, and the entries in question have been made in the usual course of business. This clause is not to apply to any proceeding in which a bank whose books are required to be produced may be a party, but we should have thought that this exception should have found place in the next clause. That is the clause that carries oiit the preamble ; it enacts that copies of entries in the books of a bank may be proved in all legal proceedings as evidence of such entries — without production of the originals— by means of the affidavit of a ; person who has examined the entries. It is, however, provided that neither the books of a bank, nor any coj>ies of entries therein, shall be adduced or received in evidence under the Act, unless five days' notice in writing, or such other notice as may be ordered by the Court, shall have been given to the other party in the proceedings, who shall be at liberty to inspect the original entries and the accounts of which they form a part. It is also provided that a Judge of the Supreme Court may order that the entries and copies, set out in the notice to be given by the party proposing to produce them, are not admissible. No bank shall be compellable to produce any of its books in any legal proceedings unless a Judge of the Supreme Court specially orders to that effect. The chief . and perhaps the only objection to the Act is its being legislation in favor of one particular class. It really is monstrous that a privilege should be conferred on banks by special enactment, without extending it to otherpubliccompanies,andto merchants, traders, and others. Why banking institutions should be thus exclusively favored it is impossible to say. Surely the inconvenience of producing account books in Court presses quite as heavily on a merchant or a trader as on. a bank, and if it is advisable to afford relief it should be extended to all alike. Banking institutions are powerful bodies, whose influence is not unfrequently brought to bear upon some of the members of the Assembly, and thus we may account for the favor that has been shown to them. It is to be hoped, however, that there are members who ai'e beyond such influence, and who will take steps in the ensuing session to repair the injustice that has been done.