INCREASED PENALTIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17131, 18 June 1927, Page 4

INCREASED PENALTIES.

FOR APIARBE& ACT BREACHES. The appearance this session Of amendments to the Apiaries Act, whic has been the subject of agitation by beekeepers for some years, was forecasted by the Minister of Agriculture (lion. 0. J. Hawken) when addressing a deputation from the National Beekeepers’ Association. It was explained by the Minister that the drafted amendments, one of which was to increase the penalties for breaches of the regulations, were alreadv in the hands of the law draughtsman, and that he (the Minister) had approved the principle of them It was a serious thing, he said, for a beekeeper to be found breaking the Act. t u . The Director of the Horticultural Division (Mr J. A. ’ Campbell) : The recommendation in the amendments is that the maximum amount of the penal!v lie raised from £5 to £2.0. Then we will get a higher scale of tines by magistrates, who indict fines according to the maximum imposed in the Act. A member of the deputation mentioned that a man fined £5 for having foul brood might do hundreds of pounds worth of damage in a week. The Minister: Unless the fine is sufficiently severe to provide a deterrent it is of no use, and a man will continue to break the law.