' Journal

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CAP. XLIX.

An Act to further amend the law relating to the Occupation and Ownership of Land in Ireland, and for other purposes relating thereto. [22nd August 1881.

CAP. L. An Act to apply the sum of Twenty-one million six hundred and ninety-five thousand seven hundred and twelve pounds out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending on the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two. [22nd August 1881.

CAP. LI. An Act to explain the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880. [22nd August 1881.

Whereas under section three of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, a person who within the period therein mentioned exposes or offers for sale, or has in his control or possession any wild bird recently killed or taken is liable to certain penalties therein mentioned, subject to the following exception, "unless such person shall prove that the said wild bird was either killed or taken, or bought or received during the period in which such wild bird could be legally killed or taken, or from some person residing out of the United Kingdom":

And whereas doubts have arisen with respect to the construction of the above-recited enactment, and it is expedient to remove such doubts:

Be it therefore enacted, &c, :

1. Amendment of s. 3 of 43 & 44 Vict. c. 35.] The aboverecited exception in section three of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, shall be repealed, and in lieu thereof the following enactment shall have effect :

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under sec. tion three of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, of exposing or offering for sale, or having the control or possession of, any wild bird recently killed, if he satisfies the court before whom he is charged either

(1.) That the killing of such wild bird, if in a place to which the said Act extends, was lawful at the time when and by the person by whom it was killed; or (2.) That the wild bird was killed in some place to which the said Act does not extend, and the fact that the wild bird was imported from some place to which the said Act does not extend shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence that the bird was killed in some place to which the said Act does not extend.

2. Amendment of Schedule to 43 & 44 Vict. c. 35.] The Schedule to the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, sball be read and construed as if the word "Lark" had been inserted therein.

3. Short title and construction of Act.] This Act may be cited as the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1881.

This Act shall be construed as one with the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, and that Act and this Act may be cited together as the Wild Birds Protection Acts, 1880 and 1881.

CAP. LII.

An Act for providing Funds to defray certain of the Expenses of the Royal University of Ireland. [22nd August 1881.

CAP. LIII. An Act for making further provision with respect to the Redemption of the Annuity created under the East Indian Railway Company Purchase Act, 1879; and for other purposes. [22nd August 1881.

CAP. LIV. An Act to make further provision with respect to the Indian Loan of 1879. [22nd August 1881.

1. Interpretation.] In the construction of this Act, unless there is anything in the subject or context repugnant thereto, the several words and phrases herein-after mentioned shall have and include the meanings following; (that is to say,)

The word "registrar" shall mean in England the registrar for the time being of joint stock companies, or such person as the Board of Trade may for the time being authorise in that behalf, and in Ireland the assistant registrar for the time being of joint stock companies for Ireland, or such person as the Board of Trade may for the time being authorise in that behalf.

The phrase "registry office" shall mean the principal office for the time being of the registrar in England or Ireland, as the case may be, or such other office as the Board of Trade may from time to time appoint.

The word "newspaper" shall mean any paper containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or observations therein printed for sale, and published in England or Ireland periodically, or in parts or numbers at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days between the publication of any two such papers, parts, or numbers.

Also any paper printed in order to be dispersed, and made public weekly or oftener, or at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days, containing only or principally advertisements.

The word "occupation" when applied to any person shall mean his trade or following, and if none, then his rank or usual title, as esquire, gentleman.

The phrase "place of residence" shall include the street, square, or place where the person to whom it refers shall reside, and the number (if any) or other designation of the house in which he shall so reside.

The word "proprietor" shall mean and include as well the sole proprietor of any newspaper, as also in the case of a divided proprietorship the persons who, as partners or otherwise, represent and are responsible for any share or interest in the newspaper as between themselves and the persons in like manner representing or responsible for the other shares or interests therein, and no other person.

2. Newspaper reports of certain meetings privileged.] Any report published in any newspaper of the proceedings of a public meeting shall be privileged, if such meeting was law. fully convened for a lawful purpose and open to the public, and if such report was fair and accurate, and published without malice, and if the publication of the matter complained of was for the public benefit; provided always, that the protection intended to be afforded by this section shall not be available as a defence in any proceeding, if the plaintiff or prosecutor can show that the defendant has refused to insert in the newspaper in which the report containing the matter complained of appeared a reasonable letter or statement of explanation or contradiction by or on behalf of such plaintiff or prosecutor.

3. No prosecution for newspaper libel without fiat of Attorney General.] No criminal prosecution shall be commenced against any proprietor, publisher, editor, or any person responsible for the publication of a newspaper for any libel published therein, without the written fiat or allowance of the Director of Public Prosecutions in England or Her Majesty's Attorney-General in Ireland being first had and obtained.

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authorise the registration of such newspaper in the name or names of some one or more responsible “representative proprietors."

8. Register of newspaper proprietors to be established.] A register of the proprietors of newspapers as defined by this Act shall be established under the superintendence of the registrar.

9. Annual returns to be made.] It shall be the duty of the printers and publishers for the time being of every newspaper to make or cause to be made to the Registry Office on or before the thirty-first of July one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, and thereafter annually in the month of July in every year, a return of the following particulars according to the Schedule A. hereunto annexed; that is to say,

(a.) The title of a newspaper :

(6.) The names of all the proprietors of such newspaper together with their respective occupations, places of business (if any), and places of residence.

10. Penalty for omission to make annual returns.] If within the further period of one month after the time hereinbefore appointed for the making of any return as to any newspaper such return be not made, then each printer and publisher of such newspaper shall, on convict on thereof, be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-tive pounds, and also to be directed by a summary order to make a return within a specified time.

11. Power to party to make return.] Any party to a transfer in any newspaper whereby any person ceases to be a or transmission of or dealing with any share of or interest

time make or cause to be made to the Registry Office a return according to the schedule B. hereunto annexed and containing the particulars therein set forth.

5. Provision as to summary conviction for libel-42 & 43 Vict. c. 49-11 & 12 Vict. c. 43.] If a court of summary jurisdiction upon the hearing of a charge against a proprietor, publisher, editor, or any person responsible for the publication of a newspaper for a libel published therein is of opinion that though the person charged is shown to have been guilty the libel was of a trivial character, and that the offence may be adequately punished by virtue of the powers of this section, the court shall cause the charge to be reduced into writing and read to the person charged, and then address a question to him to the following effect :-" Do you desire to be tried by a jury or do you consent to the case being dealt with summarily?" and, if such person assents to the case being dealt with summarily, the court may summarily convict him and adjudge him to pay a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

Section twenty-seven of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, shall, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof, apply to every such proceeding as if it were herein enacted and extended to Ireland, and as if the Summary Jurisdiction Acts were therein referred to instead of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848.

6. 22 & 23 Vict. c. 17 made applicable to this Act.] Every libel or alleged libel, and every offence under this Act, shall be deemed to be an offence within and subject to the provisions of the Act of the session of the twentysecond and twenty-third years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter seventeen, intituled "An Act to prevent

vexatious indictments for certain misdemeanors."

7. Board of Trade may authorise registration of the names of only a portion of the proprietors of a newspaper.] Where, in the opinion of the Board of Trade, inconvenience would arise or be caused in any case from the registry of the names of all the proprietors of the newspaper (either owing to minority, coverture, absence from the United Kingdom, minute subdivision of shares, or other special circumstances), it shall be lawful for the Board of Trade, to

12. Penalty for wilful misrepresentation in or omission from return.] If any person shall knowingly and wilfully make or cause to be made any return by this Act required or permitted to be made in which shall be inserted or set forth the name of any person as a proprietor of a newspaper who shall not be a proprietor thereof, or in which there shall be any misrepresentation, or from which there shall be any omission in respect of any of the particulars by this Act required to be contained therein whereby such return shall be misleading, or if any proprietor of a newspaper shall knowingly and wilfully permit any such return to be made which shall be misleading as to any of the particulars with reference to his own name, occupation, place of business (if any), or place of residence, then and in every such case every such offender being convicted thereof shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds.

13. Registrar to enter returns in register.] It shall be the duty of the registrar and he is hereby required forthwith to register every return made in conformity with the provisions of this Act in a book to be kept for that purpose at the Registry Office and called "the register of newssearch and inspect the said book from time to time during paper proprietors," and all persons shall be at liberty to the hours of business at the Registry Office, and any person may require a copy of any entry in or an extract from the book to be certified by the registrar or his deputy for the time being or under the official seal of the registrar.

14. Fees payable for registrar's services.] There shall be paid fn respect of the receipt and entry of returns made inconformity with the provisions of this Act, and for the inspection of the register of newspaper proprietors, and for certified copies of any entry therein, and in respect of any other services to be performed by the registrar such fees (f any) as the Board of Trade with the approval of the Treasury may direct and as they shall deem requisite to defray as well the additional expenses of the Registry Office caused by the provisions of this Act, as also the further remunerations and salaries (if any) of the registrar, and of any other persons employed under him in the execution of this Act, and such fees shall be dealt with as the Treasury may direct.

15. Copies of entries in and extracts from register to be evidence.] Every copy of an entry in or extract from the register of newspaper proprietors, purporting to be certified

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by the registrar or his deputy for the time being, or under the official seal of the registrar, shall be received as conclusive evidence of the contents of the said register of newspaper proprietors, so far as the same appear in such copy or extract without proof of the signature thereto or of the seal of office affixed thereto, and every such certified copy or extract shall in all proceedings, civil or criminal, be accepted as sufficient prima facie evidence of all the matters and things thereby appearing, unless and until the contrary thereof be shown.

16. Recovery of penalties and enforcement of orders.] All penalties under this Act may be recovered before a court of summary jurisdiction in manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

Summary orders under this Act may be made by a court of summary jurisdiction, and enforced in manner provided by section thirty-four of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879; and, for the purposes of this Act, that section shall be deemed to apply to Ireland in the same manner as if it were re-enacted in this Act.

17. Definitions-14 & 15 Vict. c. 93.] The expression "a court of summary jurisdiction" has in England the meanings assigned to it by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879; and in Ireland means any justice or justices of the peace, stipendiary or other magistrate or magistrates, having jurisdiction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

The expression "Summary Jurisdiction Acts" has as regards England the meanings assigned to it by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879; and as regards Ireland, means within the police district of Dublin metropolis the Acts regulating the powers and duties of justices of the peace for such district, or of the police of that district, and elsewhere in Ireland the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, and any Act amending the same.

18. Provisions as to registration of newspaper proprietors not to apply to newspaper belonging to a joint stock company— 25 & 26 Vict. c. 89, &c.] The provisions as to the registration of newspaper proprietors contained in this Act shall not apply to the case of any newspaper which belongs to a joint -stock company duly incorporated under and subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 1862 to 1879.

19. Act not to extend to Scotland.] This Act shall not extend to Scotland.

20. Short title.] This Act may for all purposes be cited as the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act, 1881.

The SCHEDULES to which this Act refers.
SCHEDULE A.

Return made pursuant to the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act, 1881.

1. Premises where intoxicating liquors sold to be closed on Sundays in Wales.] In the principality of Wales all premises in which intoxicating liquors are sold or exposed for sale by retail shall be closed during the whole of Sunday.

2. Application of Licensing Acts, 35 & 36 Vict. c. 94; 37 & 38 Vict. c. 49.] The Licensing Acts, 1872-1874, shall apply in the case of any premises closed under this Act as if they had been closed under those Acts.

3. Commencement of Aet.] This Act shall commence and come into operation with respect to each division or place in Wales on the day next appointed for the holding of the general annual licensing meeting for that division or place.

4. Sale of intoxicating liquors at railway stations.] Nothing in this Act contained shall preclude the sale at any time at a railway station of intoxicating liquors to persons arriving at or departing from such station by railway.

5. Short title.] This Act may be cited as the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act, 1881.

2. Regulations for hawking petroleum.] With respect to the hawking of petroleum to which the Petroleum Act, 1871, applies, the following regulations shall be observed: (1.) The amount of petroleum conveyed at one time in any one carriage shall not exceed twenty gallons : (2.) The petroleum shall be conveyed in a closed vessel so constructed as to be free from leakage : (3.) The carriage in which the vessels containing the petroleum are conveyed shall be so ventilated as to prevent any evaporation from the petroleum mixing with the air in or about the carriage in such proportion as to produce or be liable to produce an explosive

mixture:

(4.) Any fire or light or any article of an explosive or highly imflammable nature shall not be brought into or dangerously near to the carriage in which the vessels containing the petroleum are conveyed: (5.) The carriage in which the vessels containing the petroleum are conveyed shall be so constructed or fitted that the petroleum cannot escape therefrom in the form of liquid, whether ignited or otherwise : (6.) Proper care shall be taken to prevent any petroleum escaping into any part of a house or dwelling, or of the curtilage thereof, or into a drain or sewer: (7.) The petroleum shall be stored in some premises licensed for keeping of petroleum and in accordance with the license for such premises both every night and also when the petroleum is not in the course of being hawked:

(8.) All due precautions shall be taken for the prevention of accidents by fire or explosion, and for preventing unauthorised persons having access to the vessels containing the petroleum, and every person concerned in hawking the petroleum shall abstain from any act whatever which tends to cause fire or explosion, and is not reasonably necessary for the purpose of such hawking:

(9.) No article or substance of an explosive or inflam mable character other than petroleum, nor any article liable to cause or communicate fire or explosion, shall be in the carriage while such carriage is being used for the purpose of hawking petroleum:

In the event of any contravention of this section with reference to any petroleum, the petroleum, together with the vessels containing and the carriage conveying the same, shall be liable to be forfeited, and in addition thereto the licensee by whom or by whose servants the petroleum was being hawked shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. Provided that

(1.) Where some servant of the licensee or other person has in fact committed the offence, such servant or other person shall be liable to the same penalty as if he were the licensee: (2.) Where the licensee is charged with a contravention of this section, he shall be entitled upon information duly laid by him to have any other person whom he charges as the actual offender brought before the court at the time appointed for hearing the charge, and if the licensee proves to the satisfaction of the court that he had used due diligence to enforce the execution of this section, and that the said other person had committed the offence in question without his knowledge, consent, or connivance, the said other person shall be summarily convicted of such offence, and the licensee shall be exempt from any penalty.

Any petroleum other than that to which the Petroleum Act, 1871, applies while in any carriage used for th hawking of petroleum to which the Petroleum Act, 187 applies, shall for the purposes of this section be deem to be petroleum to which the Petroleum Act, 1871, applies.

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3. Modification of conditions of licence under 34 & 35 Viet c. 105.] Any conditions annexed to a licence granted in pur passing of this Act, shall, so far as they are inconsistent with suance of the Petroleum Act, 1871, either before or after the this Act, be void, but save as aforesaid nothing in this Act shall affect the application to a licensee of the provisions of the Petroleum Act, 1871, or of any licence granted thereunder.

constable or any officer authorised by the local authority has 4. Power of constable as to prevention of offences.] Where a reasonable cause to believe that a contravention of this Act s being committed in relation to any petroleum, he may seize and detain such petroleum and the vessels and carriage containing the same, until some court of summary jurisdic tion has determined whether there was or not a contravention of this Act, and section thirteen of the Petroleum Act, 1871, shall apply to such constable and officer as if he were the person named in the warrant mentioned in that section, and as if the seizure were a seizure in pursuance of that section.

5. Saving of rights of municipal boroughs.] Nothing in this Act contained shall extend to authorise the hawking of petroleum within the limits of any municipal borough, in which, by any lawful authority, such hawking shall have been or may hereafter be forbidden.

6. Definitions.] For the purposes of this Act

The expression" carriage" includes any carriage, waggon, cart, truck, vehicle, or other means of conveyance by land, in whatever manner the same may be drawn or propelled; and

A person shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to hawk petroleum if by himself or his servants he goes about carrying petroleum to sell, whether going from town to town or to other men's houses, or selling it in the streets of the place of his residence or otherwise, and whether with or without any horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden.

7. Short title and construction of Act-34 & 35 Vict. c. 105-42 & 43 Vict. c. 47.] This Act may be cited as the Petroleum (Hawkers) Act, 1881.

This Act shall be construed as one with the Petroleum Act, 1871 and 1879, and together with those Acts may be cited as the Petroleum Acts, 1871 to 1881.

CAP. LXVIII,

An Act to amend the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts; and for other purposes. [27th August 1881.

Whereas it is expedient to amend the constitution of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, and to make further provision concerning the Supreme Court of Judicature and the officers thereof, and such other matters as are herein-after mentioned:

Be it enacted, &c. :

1. Short title.] This Aot may be cited as the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1881.

2. Master of the Rolls to be Judge of Appeal only-36 & 37 Vict. c. 66.] From and after the passing of this Act the preent and every future Master of the Rolls shall cease to be a judge of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice, but shall continue by virtue of his office to be a judge of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, and shall retain the same rank, title, salary, right of pension, patronage, and powers of appointment or dismissal, and all other powers, privileges, and disqualifications now and heretofore belonging to the said office of Master of the Rolls and all other duties of the said office except that of a judge of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice: Provided that the present Master of the Rolls shall not by virtue of this Act be subject to any disqualification to which he is not by law now subject, nor shall be required to act under any commission of assize, nisi prios, oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery; and the existing personal officers of the Master of the Rolls shall continue to be attached to him and be under bis authority, and to hold their respective offices upon the same tenure and in the same manner in all respects as if this Act had not passed: Provided also, that any Master of the Rolls to be hereafter appointed shall be under an obligation to go circuits and to act as a commissioner under commissions of assize, or other commissions authorised to be issued in pursu ance of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, in the