Magistrate principally responsible for exercising duties of coroner

(1) A magistrate in his capacity as a coroner shall be principally responsible for performing the duties of a coroner in his district. exercising du- ties of coroner. 8 (2) If the magistrate of the district is by reason of the distance he is at the time from the place where the dead body is lying, or for any other reason, unable to act immediately, then the justice of the peace nearest to that place, to whom credible information of any unnatural death is given, shall exercise the functions and perform the duties of a coroner under this Act with respect to that unnatural death.