The Short Title of this Act is “The Servants’ Registry Offices Act, 1892.”

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

All sums received as registration-fees or otherwise under this Act in any district shall belong to the local authority of such district, and shall be paid by the clerk receiving the same into its district fund.

Within two months after the commencement of this Act, as to any servants’ registry office already existing in any district within the jurisdiction of a local authority, and within two months after any house or office is hereafter used as a servants’ registry office in any such district, the occupying tenant or keeper of such office shall register such office by delivering at the proper office to the Clerk of the local authority of such district notice in the form in the Schedule hereto, together with a certificate of character in the form in the Schedule hereto, signed by the Resident Magistrate of the district in which such registry office shall be situate. Such notice, subject to the provisions of this Act, shall be registered by such local authority on payment of a fee of ten shillings; and a license in the form or to the effect in the Schedule hereto shall be issued to the applicant by order of the local authority, and such license shall continue in force until cancelled for any cause.

But the local authority may refuse to register any office the keeper of which shall fail to produce such certificate.

The local authority may, at any time after notice in writing to the said tenant or keeper of such office, and hearing him should be appear, cancel the license issued to him.

If such tenant or occupier shall be dissatisfied with the decision of such local authority, he may, within fourteen days thereafter, appeal to the Resident Magistrate of the district by a notice in writing, setting forth the grounds of such dissatisfaction, and such Resident Magistrate, after giving notice in writing to the local authority, shall hear the parties appearing, and shall determine such appeal, and such Resident Magistrate may confirm or reverse the decision appealed against, and may make such order as may be just and reasonable.

The local authority shall keep a register in which shall be entered the names and residences of the keepers of all registry offices within the jurisdiction of such local authority; such register to be compiled from the forms to be delivered as aforesaid, or such information as such local authority shall think fit to use.

A copy of an entry made in any register kept under this Act, certified by the person having the charge thereof to be a true copy, shall be received in all Courts and on all occasions whatsoever as primâ facie evidence, and be sufficient proof of all things registered according to the provisions of this Act without the production of the register or of any document, act, or thing on which the entry is founded; and every person applying at a reasonable time shall be furnished without fee, by the person having such charge, with a certified copy of any such entry.

Every tenant or keeper of an office licensed as aforesaid shall keep or cause to be kept a book, in which shall be entered fully and truly the particulars required by the form in the Second Schedule hereto, and such book shall at all reasonable hours be open for inspection by any member of the local authority issuing the license, and by any person authorised by such authority to inspect the same, and any employer or employe may inspect any entry in such book relating to any agreement entered into by him, and to take a copy of such entry.

Every such tenant or keeper licensed as aforesaid, who shall neglect or fail to comply with the provisions of the last-preceding section, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

The local authority may, in manner provided by any Act authorising such local authority to make by-laws, from time to time make, alter, and repeal by-laws for regulating all registry offices within their jurisdiction, for fixing the particulars of information to be supplied by the keeper thereof to persons seeking employment, for the prevention of the misguidance of such persons, for limiting the maximum fees to be charged to persons using such offices either as employers or servants, and for any other purpose they may think fit for the better administration of the objects of this Act.

And by any such by-laws the local authority shall have the power of imposing penalties on offenders against the same not exceeding the sum of five pounds for each offence.

If the keeper of a registry office, or any other person having or acting in the care or management thereof, shall omit to cause his office to be registered as aforesaid, he shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, and to a further penalty not exceeding two pounds for every day during which the offence continues.

Any person, not being licensed under this Act, who shall keep a registry office or who shall have any words written, painted, or inscribed, or which may have been written, painted, or inscribed, and not thoroughly obliterated, over or about his house, window, or premises, which shall lead to the belief or supposition that such person is licensed under this Act to keep such office, or that such office is a registered office under this Act, or who shall advertise that he is the keeper of a registry office, or who shall place or cause to be placed any placard, board, writing, matter, or thing in the public view, to the intent that it may be believed or supposed that such person is licensed as aforesaid, or that such person is the keeper of a registered office under this Act, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds.

Every person shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds for every separate offence who shall let out on hire or lend any license granted to him, or shall have or act in the care or management of any registry office, trade with or under colour of any license granted to any other person whomsoever, or of any license in which his own name shall not be inserted as the name of the person to whom the same is granted.

In all proceedings against any person for acting or having acted in the care or management of a registry office without a license, such person, unless he shall produce his license or bring other satisfactory proof of his having been licensed at the time at which the offence was committed, shall be deemed to have been unlicensed.

Where the keeper of a registry office or any person having or acting in the care or management thereof is convicted of a second or any subsequent offence against any of the provisions of this Act, or of any by-laws under this Act, the Magistrate or Justices before whom such conviction takes place may, if he or they think fit, cancel his license and adjudge that he shall not, at any time within a period not exceeding five years after such conviction, as he or they think fit, keep or have or act in the care or management of a registry office.

All proceedings under this Act shall be had and taken, and all penalties may be recovered, in a summary way before a Resident Magistrate or any two or more Justices of the Peace, and when recovered shall be paid, less the cost of recovering the same, to the local authority of the district, or, where the Governor is the local authority, shall be paid into the Public Account, and form part of the Consolidated Fund.