CHANGE IN LAWS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 132, 1 December 1945, Page 9

CHANGE IN LAWS

STATUTES AMENDMENT BILL

NINETY-FIVE CLAUSES

An attempt to convert motor vehicles is made an offence under a clause in the Statutes Amendment Bill introduced in the House of Representatives late yesterday afternoon. It is also an offence for any person who without authority endeavours to open the door or get inside a motor vehicle preparatory to driving it away. Any constable may arrest without warrant any person whom he has good cause to suspect of having committed or of being about to commit such offences. The Bill is the longest of the session. It contains 95 clauses, dealing with a vai'iety of subjects, but many of the clauses are of a machinery nature. There is. a clause providing for the formation of queues in public places where the public are directed by a constable. It is an offence to break into a queue or to refuse to comply with any direction of a constable concerning a queue. TELEPHONE LANGUAGE. Foul language used over a telephone is made an offence, and also the use of a telephone for sending fictitious messages. The penalty in each case is fixed at £50 or three months' imprisonment. An amendment is made to the Companies Act to provide for lists of shareholders being filed every three years instead of each year as at present and for particulars of transfers to be filed in the intervening two years. There is a clause giving wider powers to county councils to control the movements of stock. In another clause all members of the Forces are to be declared servants of the Crown, so that the Crown will be under the same liability for their wrongful acts as a private employer would be in respect to his servants. There is also a similar provision for claims against members of visiting forces and this provision is made retrospective to 1942. RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Authority is given for the making of regulations providing that membership of a service organisation shall be a condition of railway employment or of continued employment in the Department of employees other than administrative officers. The Minister is given power to exempt any employee or class of employees from the provisions of the regulations. If an employee who is a piember of a service organisation fails to pay his fees the Minister may authorise the fees to be deducted from his salary or wages for this purpose. The same continuing liability is imposed on a landlord as is already imposed on the owner of a house erected or rebuilt to provide an adequate water supply or sufficient privy accommodation for the dwelling-house. . The maximum age of jurors is increased from 60 years to 65 years. It is provided that a Grand Jury will not be required to attend when there are no criminal cases. To meet a proposed increase in the amount of jurors' fees to £1 a day, there is a clause increasing the amounts payable by parties who set cases down for hearing before juries of 12 and four respectively. Widows of servicemen or discharged servicemen are placed on the same basis as discharged servicemen in regard to preference over other applicants for Crown land. There is provision for the New Zealand University to grant degrees in divinity. The right is given to the Canterbury and Massey Agricultural Colleges to have one representative each on the Academic Board, instead of one representative between them. Another clause makes it clear that a printer is liable to a penalty if he fails to print his name and place of abode on any paper or book he prints for publication. The amount of the penalty is left to the Court to determine, having regard to the gravity of the offence, but the maximum penalty that may be imposed is £100. The definition of "serviceman" is extended to include persons who were mobilised for overseas but who never proceeded overseas owing, to illness or, other cause. SOIL CONSERVATION. Provision is made under the soil conservation and rivers control legislation for the payment of a subsidy on administrative rates when the rateable property is not of sufficient capital value to provide an adequate sum for administrative purposes by levying the maximum rate. Catchment boards are empowered to levy a rate of not more than one farthing in the pound on capital value for provision of plant, afforestation, and- establishment of maintenance of minor river control works on a uniform basis. It is provided, however, that with certain exceptions this general rate shall not be use.d for any works without the approval of the Soil Conservation and' Eivers Control Council. There is also a provision making, it unnecessary to obtain consent for the destruction of deer and other pests in certain areas where this is essential for soil conservation purposes. TESTING OF DAIRY CATTLE. Tuberculin testing of dairy cattle is provided for on premises from which milk is supplied for human consumption. It is intended first to deal with farms, the milk from which is not pasteurised, and later to deal with the remaining farms. Compensation is to be paid for stock condemned on the result of the tuberculin test on a basis higher than that which applies to condemnation on other grounds. Provision is also made for the extension of tuberculin testing to other dairy herds at a later date. Jurisdiction in the licensing of commercial aircraft services is transferred from the Minister of Transport to. the Minister in Charge of the Air Department.

Authority is given for the variation and extension of conditions of sharemilking agreements and of wages and conditions of agricultural workers on the recommendation of the Arbitration Court in cases where organisations of employers and workers can-