This Act may be cited as the Magistrates’ Courts Amendment Act, 1909, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Magistrates’ Courts Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

This Act shall come into operation on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and ten.

In any action for the recovery of debt, damages, or other moneys, if the defendant desires to defend the action he shall, within five clear days after the service of the summons upon him, file in the Court a notice, signed by him or on his behalf, stating that he intends to defend the action.

No Court fees shall be payable in respect of the filing of any such notice.

If the defendant fails to file in accordance with the last preceding section a notice of his intention to defend the action, he shall not be allowed to defend the same except by the leave of the Court granted on special grounds, and on such terms as to costs and otherwise as the Court thinks fit; and the Court may, at the time and place appointed for the hearing, or at any continuation or adjournment of the Court or action, if the plaintiff has appeared, give judgment in the action in the same manner as if it was undefended.

If in any action for the recovery of debt, damages, or other moneys the defendant desires to set up a defence of infancy, coverture, the Statute of Limitations, or a discharge in bankruptcy, he shall in the notice aforesaid set out the nature of the defence which he so desires to set up; and if he fails to do so he shall not be permitted, without the leave of the Court granted on special grounds, and on such terms as to costs and otherwise as the Court thinks fit, to set up that defence, and the Court may give judgment in the action in the same manner as if no such defence was available.

Section seventy-one of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

Section sixty-seven of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting therefrom the words “three clear days in a case within an ordinary jurisdiction, and seven clear days in all other cases,” and substituting the words “seven clear days.”

Section fifteen and subsection seven of section fourteen of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 1908 (relating to the procedure in Magistrates’ Courts), are hereby repealed.

In an action for the recovery of the price of goods sold and delivered, whereof particulars have been already delivered in writing by the plaintiff to the defendant, whether the claim is for a balance of account or otherwise, it shall be a sufficient compliance with the requirements of section sixty-five of the principal Act, as to the particulars to be contained in the statement of claim, if that statement is in the form set out in the Schedule hereto, or in such similar form as is appropriate to the case.

This section shall extend and apply, with the necessary modifications, to the requirements of section seventy of the principal Act with respect to the particulars to be contained in a statement of counterclaim.

Where a statement of claim or counterclaim is in the form set out in the Schedule hereto, the Court may, on such terms as to costs and otherwise as the Court thinks fit, order that further particulars shall be given.

When an action has been commenced in a Magistrate’s Court before the commencement of this Act, all subsequent proceedings in that action (including appeals from any judgment or other determination therein) shall be taken in the same manner as if this Act had not been passed.