This Act may be cited as the Justices of the Peace Amendment Act, 1923, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

The power conferred on the Supreme Court by section three hundred and thirteen of the principal Act to make such order in relation to the subject-matter of an appeal under section three hundred and two of that Act as it thinks fit is hereby declared to include the power to confirm, reverse, or modify, within the limits warranted by law, the term of any sentence of imprisonment or the amount of any fine or other sum of money ordered to be paid.

Electricity is hereby declared to be a thing capable of being stolen within the meaning of the principal Act and of the Crimes Act, 1908, and any person who maliciously or fraudulently abstracts, causes to be wasted or diverted, consumes, or uses any electricity shall be guilty of theft and punishable accordingly.

Section nineteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the following words: “No fee shall be payable in respect of any such information.”

The power conferred on Justices by section eighty-four of the principal Act to order certain payments to be made by parties in respect of the expenses and loss of time of witnesses summoned to give evidence at the hearing of an information is hereby extended to empower such Justices to make a like order in respect of witnesses required to give evidence at such hearing but not summoned so to do.

Section ninety-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding as subsection two thereof the following words:—

Where any warrant of commitment has been issued by a Justice for the apprehension of any person and for his conveyance to and detention in a prison named in such warrant, any Magistrate may, if it appears to him to be more convenient that such person should be conveyed to and detained in a prison other than that named in the warrant, endorse the warrant accordingly, and the warrant shall thereupon have effect as if the name of the prison mentioned in the endorsement had been originally inserted in the warrant.

Section one hundred and thirteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding as subsection two thereof the following words:—

Section one hundred and twenty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection two the word “Fourth,” and substituting the word “Third.”

Notwithstanding anything in section one hundred and forty-eight of the principal Act, the direction therein contained that, when the examination of the witnesses on the part of the prosecution has been completed, the Justices shall read or cause to be read to the accused the depositions taken against him need not be complied with unless the accused so desires.

Section one hundred and fifty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding as subsection two thereof the following words:—

Where an accused person charged with an indictable offence is committed to the Supreme Court for trial or sentence, the Justices by whom he is so committed shall issue a certificate in the Form No. 39 in the Second Schedule to the principal Act, setting forth the sum payable as allowances to the prosecutor and witnesses at the hearing before the Justices in accordance with the scale of such allowances for the time being in force.

The foregoing provisions of this section are in substitution for subsection one of section one hundred and sixty-two of the principal Act, and that subsection and section three of the Justices of the Peace Amendment Act, 1910, are hereby repealed.

Section one hundred and seventy-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection three the words “indorsed on the information,” and substituting the words “written, printed, or typed on the front or back of the information.”

Section one hundred and seventy-nine of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “twenty pounds” where-ever they occur, and substituting the words “fifty pounds” in every case.

Section two hundred and fifty of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “not being the informant or complainant.”

Section two hundred and eighty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the word “Postmaster,” the words “or other officer in the service of the Crown.”

Section one hundred and eighty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “twelve months,” and substituting the words “two years.”

Any information, complaint, summons, recognizance to prosecute, recognizance to prosecute and give evidence, recognizance to give evidence, or affidavit of the service of any summons authorized by or required for the purposes of the principal Act may be sworn, issued, taken, or received by the Clerk of any Court constituted under the Magistrates’ Courts Act, 1908, or the deputy of such Clerk if such Clerk or deputy is not also an officer of police.

This section is in substitution for section two of the Justices of the Peace Amendment Act, 1908, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

Section two of the Justices of the Peace Amendment Act, 1910, is hereby amended by omitting the words “pays under conditions prescribed by prison rules,” and substituting the words “has paid to any person authorized or entitled to receive the same.”