This Act may be cited as the Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act, 1919, and shall come into operation on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty.

In this Act—

Save with the authority of the Attorney-General, no person shall land in New Zealand from any place beyond the seas unless and until he has made and delivered to an officer of Customs a declaration in the form in the Schedule hereto.

The last preceding subsection shall not apply—

Any person who arrives in New Zealand from any place beyond the seas as the master or a member of the crew of any vessel may thereupon, or at any time thereafter, whether before or after he has landed from that vessel, be required by any officer of Customs or of police to make and deliver to that officer a declaration in the form in the Schedule hereto.

Every person commits an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly who,—

No person who has at any time been a subject of the State of Germany or of Austria-Hungary as those States existed on the fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen (being the date of the commencement of the war with Germany), and no alien born in any place which on that date was within the limits of the German Empire in Europe or within the limits of the monarchy of Austria-Hungary, shall land in New Zealand without a license in that behalf issued by the Attorney-General.

For the purposes of this section no person being the master or a member of the crew of any vessel arriving in New Zealand from beyond the seas shall be deemed to have landed in New Zealand if he leaves New Zealand with that vessel within one month after arrival in New Zealand or within such extended time as the Attorney-General may allow in that behalf.

In any prosecution for an offence against this section the burden of proving that the accused is not a person to whom this section applies shall lie on the accused.

In any prosecution for an offence against this section the Court may admit such evidence as it thinks fit, whether such evidence would be legally admissible in other proceedings or not.

This section shall not apply to an alien who at the time when he arrives in New Zealand is already domiciled there and has not been absent therefrom for a longer period than two years.

When the Attorney-General is satisfied that any person is not permanently resident in New Zealand and is disaffected or disloyal, or of such a character that his presence in New Zealand would be injurious to the peace, order, and good government of that Dominion, and that such person is about to arrive or land in New Zealand from parts beyond the seas, the Attorney-General may, by order signed by him, prohibit that person from landing in New Zealand.

If the person against whom such order has been made lands in New Zealand with knowledge of the fact that the order has been made against him, he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly.

Any person who is found on shore in New Zealand at any time after an order has been so made against him may be arrested without warrant by any constable and placed and detained on board the ship by which he arrived in New Zealand or on board any other ship belonging to the same owner and about to leave New Zealand, and may, pending his removal to such ship, be detained in such custody and in such place as the Attorney-General may direct.

If the owner, charterer, or master of any such ship having knowledge of the making of such order refuses to permit the person against whom the order is made to remain on board the ship in obedience to the order, or refuses to receive that person on board the ship when brought thereto in custody in accordance with this Act, or connives at or is privy to the escape of that person from the ship, such owner, charterer, or master shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly.

The Attorney-General, if so directed by the Governor-General in Council, may, by order signed by him, order any person to leave New Zealand in any of the cases following, that is to say:—

If any person remains in New Zealand for twenty-eight days after the day on which such an order or a copy or duplicate thereof is served on him, he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly.

When the Attorney-General, in pursuance of the authority conferred on him by this Act, has ordered any person to leave New Zealand, he may, by the same or any subsequent order, if he thinks such a course necessary in the public interest, and whether default has yet been made in obedience to the order or not, authorize the arrest of that person and his deportation from New Zealand on a vessel named by the Attorney-General and about to leave New Zealand, and thereupon any constable may without warrant arrest that person and place him on board that vessel, and detain him there until the vessel has left New Zealand.

When any person ordered to leave New Zealand has been so arrested, he may, pending his deportation from New Zealand, be detained in such custody as the Attorney-General may direct.

No person ordered to leave New Zealand as aforesaid shall at any time after compliance with the order, or after having been placed on board any vessel as aforesaid, return to or land in New Zealand without the permission in writing of the Attorney-General, and every person who so returns or lands shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

Such sum as the Attorney-General considers reasonable may be paid out of the Consolidated Fund, without further appropriation than this Act, to the owner, charterer, or master of any vessel on account of the carriage from New Zealand of any person so ordered to leave New Zealand and placed on board that vessel under arrest; and if after payment or offer of that sum the owner, charterer, or master of that vessel refuses to receive or retain on board the person so arrested or the officer in whose custody he is, or connives at or is privy to the escape from the ship of any person so ordered to leave New Zealand, he commits an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly.

An order made by the Attorney-General under this Act may at any time be revoked by him.

The revocation of any such order shall not operate so as to render unlawful anything theretofore done pursuant to the order, or anything that may be thereafter done by any person in intended pursuance of the order without notice of its revocation.

If an officer of Customs or of police has reason to believe or suspect that any person arriving in New Zealand from beyond the seas is a person whose landing in New Zealand is prohibited by this Act, or whose intention to land in New Zealand should be communicated to the Attorney-General for the purposes of this Act, such officer may, by order signed by him, temporarily prohibit that person from landing in New Zealand.

Every such order shall, unless sooner revoked, expire in forty-eight hours after the day on which it was signed.

Every person who, with knowledge that such an order has been made against him, lands in New Zealand while the order remains in force commits an offence against this Act and shall be liable accordingly.

Every person who commits, or attempts to commit, or does any act with intent to commit, or counsels, procures, aids, abets, or incites any other person to commit, or conspires with any other person (whether in New Zealand or elsewhere) to commit, an offence against this Act shall be liable on summary conviction before a Stipendiary Magistrate to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months, or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

Section forty-nine and section one hundred and twenty-two of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1908, shall have no application to a prosecution under this Act.

This Act shall be in force in the Cook Islands.

In the application of this Act to the Cook Islands—

This Act is in addition to and not in substitution for any of the provisions of the Immigration Restriction Act, 1908, and its amendments.