EVIDENCE ACT 1906 - SECT 3

EVIDENCE ACT 1906 - SECT 3

3 .         Terms used

                In this Act, unless the context or subject matter otherwise indicates or requires, —

        Act includes Ordinance;

        Australasian colony means and includes New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia during such time as such possessions constituted separate colonies; New Zealand, and any part of New Zealand during such time as such part constituted a separate colony; Fiji; and any other British possession which may at any time be created within Her Majesty’s possessions in Australasia;

        bank means —

            (a)         an ADI (authorised deposit-taking institution) as defined in section 5 of the Banking Act 1959 of the Commonwealth; or

            (b)         a bank constituted by a law of a State, a Territory or the Commonwealth;

        bankers’ books and expressions referring to bankers’ books include ledgers, day books, cash books, account books, and all other books used in the ordinary business of the bank however such books are compiled, recorded or stored, whether in written form or on microfilm or by electronic process or otherwise;

        colony includes province;

        Commonwealth means the Commonwealth of Australia;

        court includes the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court, the District Court, the Children’s Court, the Family Court, the Magistrates Court, a warden’s court under the Mining Act 1978 , and a court of summary jurisdiction;

        document includes a part of a document;

        examined copy means a copy proved to have been examined with the original, and to correspond therewith. The examination may be made either by one person reading both the original and the copy or by 2 persons, one reading the original and the other the copy, and it is not necessary that each should alternately read both;

        Gazette means and includes the London Gazette , the Edinburgh Gazette , the Dublin Gazette , the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette and the Government Gazette , Royal Gazette , or other official gazette of any State or Australasian colony;

        Government Printer means and includes the Printer to Her Majesty, and any person printing or publishing for the Government of the Commonwealth or of any State or Australasian colony, and any person purporting to be authorised to print or publish the Statutes, Ordinances, Acts of State, or other public Acts of the Legislature of any Australasian colony, or otherwise to be the Government Printer of such colony;

        judge means a Justice of the High Court of Australia and a judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, and includes a judge of The District Court of Western Australia, a judge of the Family Court of Western Australia, a judge or magistrate of the Children’s Court of Western Australia, a magistrate of the Magistrates Court, a coroner within the meaning of the Coroners Act 1996 , and also any justice or justices of the peace sitting in court;

        legal proceeding or proceeding includes any action, trial, inquiry, cause, or matter, whether civil or criminal, in which evidence is or may be given, and includes an arbitration;

        person acting judicially means any person having, in Western Australia, by law or by consent of parties, authority to hear, receive, and examine evidence;

        photograph means a durable facsimile of an original obtained by any photographic, photostatic or similar process;

        prisoner means and includes any person committed to prison for punishment, or on remand, or for trial, safe custody, or otherwise;

        State means a State of the Commonwealth;

        the State means the State of Western Australia or the colony of Western Australia prior to the establishment of the Commonwealth;

        uncorroborated evidence , in relation to the conviction of a person accused of an offence, means evidence that is not corroborated in some material particular by other evidence implicating the accused person;

        votes and proceedings shall be deemed to include journals and minutes, and any papers purporting to be printed by the authority of and to be laid before either House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, or of any State or of any Australasian colony.

        [Section 3 amended: No. 11 of 1964 s. 2; No. 111 of 1978 s. 2; No. 66 of 1987 s. 4; No. 70 of 1988 s. 35; No. 15 of 1991 s. 23; No. 73 of 1994 s. 4; No. 26 of 1999 s. 78(2); No. 71 of 2000 s. 3; No. 15 of 2003 s. 15; No. 59 of 2004 s. 89; No. 13 of 2021 s. 57.]