AMENDMENT OF STATUTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 12

AMENDMENT OF STATUTES

Miscellaneous Provisions.

“NOTHING OF CONTENTIOUS NATURE” Miscellaneous alterations to existing laws are contained in the Statutes Amendment Bill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Governor-General’s Message last night. Most' of th(* changes are made with the object of removing anomalies or of improving details as far as administration is concerned.

Under one clause the official assignee is to be entitled to commission when he is administering estates under the Administration Act.

The Agricultural Workers Act Is amended so that dairy-farm workers mav agree to accept leave between milkings instead of weekly half-holi-days, as provided for in the existing law. A new provision to be read into the Crimes Amendment Act gives a person sentenced by- a magistrate to a period of reformative detention the right of appeal to the Supreme Court. The appeal must be lodged within 14 days of the passing of sentence. In a section dealing with destitute persons it is provided that a husband may be allowed access to his child during the currency of a guardianship order. On the other hand, it is made an offence for a husband to molest child ren in respect of whom a guardianship order has been made. In reference to the determining of wages of apprentices under the Factories Act, a clause in the Bill makes it clear that only previous employment in the same or a similar factory is to be taken into consideration. Confusion which may arise owing to lights being displayed near railway signals is the subject of another clause, which gives the Minister of Railways authority to order the removal or screening of the lights in question. Failure to observe the-Minister’s order can be punished by a line of £lOO. and in the event of non-compliance by the person responsible for offending lights departmental officers are authorised to carry out the work themselves and recover the expenditure involved. The Housing Survey Act is extended until the end of the present year.

The Bill provides that digging for kauri gum is to be prohibited on Crown lands where development works are in progress or contemplated. Several amendments to the Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Act are included in the Bill. It is provided that in certain cases a mortgagee may apply for an adjustment of liabilities of a guarantor. There are technical amendments dealing with the restricted exercise of powers under adjusted mortgages and the extension of time for the recovery of rates where Hie lieginning of proceedings is prohibited. There is also a clarification of the stains of adjustment commissions. The Motor Vehicles Act is amended in various directions. Agricultural tractors and trailers attached to them are to be exempt from registration fees. A limitation is placed on the weight of motor-vehicles, the loaded weight to lie’ a maximum of 10 tons or six tons in the case of multi-axled vehicles. However, special permission may be given if necessary for the use of extra heavy motor-vehicles.

The power to make regulations under the Orchard and. Garden Diseases Act is to be extended to permit regu latipns authorising an inspector to enter any premises to inspect fruit intended for sale and to impose an inspection fee on fruit intended for local consumption. Public accountants' officers are to be excluded from the operations of the Shops and Offices Aet, although they will be on the same footing as solicitors’ offices in the payment of wages and in the keeping of wages and timebooks.

“Many of the clauses in the Bill deal with routine matters, and have been introduced to avoid inconvenience which might otherwise result,’’ said the At-torney-General, Hon. H. G. R. Mason,

when the Bill was introduced. “Some of them really only enact what we believed was the law before, and. so far as I know, the Bill contains nothing of a contentious nature.”