CRIMES ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 6

CRIMES ACT

OMISSION POINTED OUT (By Telegrapli—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 19. An omission from the wording of the Crimes Act, which contains no reference to such buildings as pavilions of sports "bodies, was commented on by Mr. Justice Fair during his address to the Grand Jury at the opening of the criminal sessions in tfie Supreme Court. Charges were laid against a Maori of having broken into the pavilion of the Pukelcohe racecourse and stolen property from the golf club's room there. Owing to the defect mentioned in the Act, the charge was laid against the man of having broken into a "warehouse." His Honour said the Grand Jury ought to find no bill on the first and fourth counts because the essence of those counts was that the accused had broken into a "warehouse." A warehouse was a storehouse in which mercantile goods were stored. Though that meaning had to be extended at times, by no reasonable extension could a pavilion on a racing club's property used by a golf club be called a warehouse. It appeared that by a defect in the Crimes Act a building of this kind was not covered by the word "warehouse." That was the only word that looked like describing this type of building. Following his Honour's direction, the Grand Jury rejected the two counts of breaking and entering.