Whenever the vendee in a land contract, or other persons entitled by law to receive notice of the forfeiture of the same, shall be absent from the state of Michigan, or concealed therein, or when the whereabouts of such person cannot be determined after diligent search and inquiry, it shall be lawful for the person giving such notice of forfeiture, to publish the same 3 successive times at weekly intervals in some newspaper printed and circulating in the county where such property is situated, if there be one printed and circulating in said county; and in case there be no newspaper printed and circulating in said county, then in some newspaper published in an adjoining county and circulating in the county where such property is situated.

     Upon a trial before a circuit court commissioner, or before any other court in this state, when it may become necessary to prove the giving of such notice of forfeiture, the same may be shown by the introduction of due proof of such publication and further proof to the satisfaction of said court, that the circumstances justifying such publication existed at the time thereof.