BULLS COURT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9388, 6 March 1909, Page 5

BULLS COURT.

i FRIDA Y, MARCH sth. (Before Mr Kerr, S.M.)

Judgment for plaintiff by default was given in the case of Zajouskowski Bros. v. Taraua Utikn Mammam, claim £34 16s 4d; costs £3 15s.

The adjourned case, Jesse Tapp v. Walter Gordon,' for a claim of £9 2s 10d, balance of account for chaff and oats supplied, came op for ingMr Lyon appeared for plaintiff, and Mr Collins for defendant.

A plea of infancy had been filed by defendant. A birth certificate was produced frotp the RegistrarGeneral, in the usual form, giving the name of the child, the date of its birth, and its parents’ names, and defendant was proceeding to depose that he was the child in the certificate, when Mr Lyon objected that defendant was not competent to testify to the fact of his identity, but that one of defendant’s parents, or some other person, who had direct knowledge of his birth, should have been called as a witness. His contention was that the' particulars shown in birth certificates were supplied by private persons only, and were not within the knowledge of the registering officer, and that the records of such particulars “in the birth certificate were hearsay only as far as third persons were concerned. Mr Collins contended that proof of the age could be given by the defendant himself, and also that the birth certificate was proof of the defendant’s birth, and cited an English case in support of this latter contention. His Worship stated thafc he might have reserved the point as to the effect of the particulars given in the certificate, but that he would hold that the defendant had not established that he was identical with the person named in the certificate, as the child whose birth was recorded. He, therefore, disallowed the plea of infancy and the case proceeded.

Several items in the claim were disputed, and evidence was taken on both sides, but eventually the case was adjourned to the next sitting of the Court.