IN OPERATION

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1927, Page 7

IN OPERATION

ACTS OF LAST SESSION. In addition to a number of consolidating measures, several new Acts passed last session came into operation on Saturday. The provisions of the Agricultural College Act »6w take effect, but the annoimcement of the personnel of the College Council cannot be made as negotiations concerning the Government’s representation have not yet been finalised. Representatives have already been appointed by the Auckland and Victoria College Councils and the Board of Agriculture, Under the Town Planning Act every borough of more than 1990 population, according to the last census, is required within three years from Saturday to prepare a town-planning scheme for its district. This hae to be submitted to the Town Planning Board, which incidentally has yet to be constituted. Another board to be appointed is that which will consider applications for registration under the Veterinary Surgeons Aet, which also came into force on Saturday. An alteration of importance is the liberalisation of the provisions relating to workers’ compensation. The amount nojy payable in respect of the death of a worker is £l9OO, while an increase has also been made in the compensation payable for total or partial incapacity. Another humanitarian product of last BCBfiion which now comes into operation is the provision of the Guardianship of Infants Act, which defines the. welfare of the child as the paramount consideration in Court proceedings where the custody or upbringing of a child is concerned. The Aet also equalises the rights of the mother with thoee of the father to apply to the Court in respect of any matter affecting the intant. A new scale ot State contributions provided by the Fire Brigades Act, new provisions gbvernuig junior national scholarships , (Education Amendment Act), an increase in Magistrates’ salaries' . (Magistrate’s Court Amendment Act), and the deferred provisions of the Weights and Measures Act of 1925 which bring the law into line with that of Britain, also became operative from Saturday. Regulations recently gazetted set in motion portion of the machinery provided for the reconstitution of the New Zealand University; but the effect of the Census and Statistics Act, though dating from January 1, will not make itself felt, in its main requirements until the 1931 census.