SECOND HAND DEALERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1913, Page 3

SECOND HAND DEALERS

AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. AUCKLAND, July 14.

That second-hand dealers may not purchase or receive goods from boys apparently under sixteen years of ago was the interpretation placed by Mr. El C. Cut ten, S.M., this morning on one of the restrictive sections of the Second-hand Dealers Act. J. Began, a second-hand dealer, in Victoria Street, was charged that .he had purchased, or received, goods from a small boy of twelve or thirteen years of age. The boy called with a dozen sacks for sale, "Raving been sent, he said, by his mother, and the dealer wrote out a note for the mother to sign before he would take the sacks. The boy brought the note back signed, and the dealer made a purchase. Mr. Denniston, for the defendant, said he represented the Association as well as the defendant, and ho would like a ruling on the matter. It had been the practice of members of the Association for 50 or 40 years to receive goods from boys under. 16 years of age when they brought a note indL eating for whom they were acting as agent. This was done, of course, only in cases where the dealer knew the boys, and knew also the parents or the person for whom they were acting. His Worship said that the whole policy «£ the Act was to save secondhand deaiors from assisting thieves, and the object of the particular restriction in question was to get persons wanting to sell goods to go personally to a dealer as a responsible person whose name could be taken and recorded, and who would be observed by the dealer. The section must be strictly, construed, and it was an, offence to purchase or receive from a person under 16 .years of age under a.ny circumstances, note or no note. The case was a test one, involving an important principle, and the penalty would be made light in this instance. Defendant would be convicted, and fined 10s and costs.