SECOND-HAND DEALERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3097, 23 July 1913, Page 3

SECOND-HAND DEALERS.

INTERPRETATION OF THE ACT. RESTRICTION ON JUVENILES. AUCKLAND, July Id. That second-hand dealers may not purchase or receive goods from boys apparently under 16 years of age was the interpretation placed by Mr E. 0. Cutten, S.M., this morning on one of the restrictive sections of the Second-hand Dealer®' Act. J. Regan, second-hand dealer, in Victoria street, was charged that he had purchased or received coeds from a small l>oy of 12 or 15 j-ears of age. The boy called with a dozen sacks for sale, having beau sent, lie said, by his mother, and tho 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 the purchase. Mr Denniston, for the defendant, said that he represented the association as well as the defendant, and he would like a ruling on the matter. It had been tho practice of members of the association for 50 or 40 3’ears to receive goods from boys under 16 when they brought a note indicating 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 i or whom they were acting. His Worship said that the whole policy of tho Act was to save second-hand dealers from assisting thieves, and the object ct the particular restriction in question was to get persons wanting to "sell goods to go personally to tho dealers as responsible persons, whose names could be taken and recorded, and who could be observed by I tie dealer. The section must bo strictly construed, and it was an offence to parch or receive from a person under 16 years of age under any circumstances, note or x.o 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 lined 10s and costs.