Section 303

If on the trial of any person against whom a finding of culpable homicide amounting to murder or culpable homicide not amounting to murder or causing death by a rash or negligent act has been returned at any inquiry it is proved by the oath of any credible witness that any person whose deposition was taken at the inquiry is dead or that the attendance of that witness cannot be procured without an amount of delay or expense which under the circumstances of the case appears to the court unreasonable and it is shown that the person against whom that deposition is intended to be given in evidence had the opportunity of cross-examining that person, if the deposition purports to be signed by the Coroner before whom it purports to have been taken, it shall be lawful to read that deposition as evidence without any further proof of it unless it is proved that the deposition was not in fact signed by the Coroner purporting to sign it. [302