Section 55

Subject to any rules or orders made under this

Act, the witnesses, and where necessary the parties, in such contentious matters as may be prescribed by the Chief Jus-tice in accordance with th~ Proviso to section 5 where their attendance can be had shall be examined orally by or before the Probate Officer:

Provided that, subject to any such rules or orders as aforesaid, the parties shall be at liberty to verify their re-spective cases, in whole or in part, by affidavit, but so that the deponent in every such affidavit shall, in the application of the opposite party, be subject to be cross-examined by or on behalf of such opposite party orally as aforesaid, and after such cross-examination may be re-examined orally as aforesaid by or on behalf of the party by whom such affida-vit was filed.

When a witness in any such matter is out of

Brunei, or when, by reason of his illness or otherwise, the

Probate Officer does not think fit to enforce his attendance in person, it shall be lawful for the Probate Officer to order a commission to issue for his examination upon interroga-tories or otherwise, or, if the witness is within Brunei, to order his examination, upon interrogatories or otherwise, before any person named for that purpose in the order.