This Act may be cited as the Police Offences Amendment Act, 1924, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Police Offences Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section three of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (ee), and substituting the following paragraph:—

Where proceedings for an offence against section seven of the principal Act are instituted by any person acting on behalf of a society established for the prevention of cruelty to animals, the amount of the fine (if any) recovered in respect of that offence shall be paid to that society without further appropriation than this section.

Every person is liable to a fine of five pounds who on Sunday, in or in view of any public place, trades, works at his trade or calling, deals, transacts business, sells goods, or exposes goods for sale.

Every person is liable to a fine of five pounds who on Sunday keeps open any house, store, shop, bar, or other place for the purpose of trading, dealing, transacting business, selling goods, or exposing goods for sale.

Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall apply to works of necessity or charity, or the driving of live-stock, or the sale of refreshments for consumption on the premises, or the sale of medicine or of surgical or medical appliances, or of anything required in connection with sickness or accident, or the sale or delivery of milk, or to hairdressers or barbers before nine o’clock in the forenoon, or to persons driving any public or private motor-car, carriage, or cab, or to persons employed in the working of railway-trains or tram-cars or cable-lines, or on steamers, vessels, or boats, or in a motor-garage, or to any livery-stable keeper, or to any person letting boats for hire, or to any person employed in or in connection with any telegraph-office or post-office, or to any person employed in preparing, printing, and publishing a daily newspaper.

The Minister of Railways may, by warrant under his hand addressed to any person, authorize such person, either by himself or by his employee or employees, to open any railway bookstall at any station where Sunday trains are running for business, and carry on the ordinary business thereof on any Sunday or Sundays during such time as may be specified in such warrant. The said Minister may in like manner modify or cancel any such warrant.

Any person acting under and in accordance with the authority contained in any such warrant shall not be liable under the provisions of subsections one and two of this section.

This section is in substitution for section seventeen of the principal Act, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

Section twenty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to paragraph (l) the words “and every other place open to or used by the public, whether on the payment of money or otherwise.”

Section fifty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (i), and substituting the following paragraph:—

Every person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of ten pounds or to imprisonment for three months who without lawful excuse (the proof of which excuse shall be on him), but in circumstances that do not disclose the commission of, or an intention to commit, any other offence, is found by night in or on any building, or in any enclosed yard, garden, or area, or in or on board any ship, launch, dredge, yacht, boat, or other vessel.

For the purposes of the last preceding section and of sections fifty and fifty-one of the principal Act the expression “night” means the time commencing on the expiration of the first hour after sunset and concluding at the beginning of the last hour before sunrise.

Any constable who has reasonable ground for believing that any property which has been stolen or unlawfully obtained is in the possession of any person, or is in any conveyance, package, or receptacle of any description found on or about any wharf, quay, dock, or public place adjacent to any port, harbour, river, canal, navigable stream, inland water, or dock, or is on any ship, launch, dredge, yacht, boat, or other vessel in any port, harbour, river, canal, navigable stream, inland water, or dock, may search, and detain for the purpose of search, such person, conveyance, package, receptacle, or vessel, and may take possession of any such property found thereon or therein.

Every person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of twenty pounds or to imprisonment for three months who unlawfully and without colour of right, but not so as to be guilty of theft thereof within the meaning of the Crimes Act, 1908, takes or converts to his use or to the use of any other person any horse, or any motor-car or other vehicle or carriage of any description, or any launch, yacht, boat, or other vessel.

In addition to any penalty under the last preceding subsection, the Magistrate or Justices by whom any person is convicted of an offence under this section may order the person so convicted to pay to the owner a sum not exceeding twenty pounds by way of compensation for any damage to or in respect of the thing so taken or converted arising out of the unlawful taking or conversion thereof, and all moneys so ordered to be paid shall be recoverable in the same manner as fines are recoverable.

The making or enforcement of an order under the last preceding subsection shall not affect the right of the owner or of any other person to recover by civil action any damages in excess of the amount specified in that order.

Any constable may arrest without warrant any person whom he has good cause to suspect of having committed or of being about to commit any offence to which this section relates.

This section is in substitution for section three of the Police Offences Amendment Act, 1919, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

Where any person subject to the Naval Discipline Acts is apprehended pursuant to the principal Act on the ground only that he has been found drunk in a public place, it shall be lawful for any officer in charge of a police-station to which such person may have been taken pending his being taken and conveyed before a Justice, as required by the principal Act, to deliver him up to any officer of the ship to which he belongs, or other authorized person, for conveyance to the ship, there to be dealt with in accordance with any Act or regulations relating to naval discipline.

The officer in charge of a police-station may, in his discretion, refuse to deliver up any such person as aforesaid unless he has first received an acknowledgment in writing that the person so to be delivered up was found drunk in a public place.

In this section the term “Naval Discipline Acts” includes the Imperial Acts respectively cited as the Naval Discipline Act, 1866, and the Naval Discipline (Dominion Naval Forces) Act, 1911.

Every person is liable on summary conviction to four months’ imprisonment or to a fine of twenty pounds who, in incurring any debt or liability, obtains credit by means of any fraud to an amount not exceeding fifty pounds.

For the purposes of this section the term “wrestling contest” means any wrestling match, wrestling competition, or wrestling exhibition for admission to which a charge is made or at which a collection is taken up, or at which those present are invited or permitted to contribute money or to deposit it in the building or elsewhere, or on the result of which any stake, payment, or prize depends.

No wrestling contest shall be held except in pursuance of a permit granted by the Inspector of Police of the district in which it is held, and every such contest, shall be conducted in accordance with any regulations which may be made under this section.

Every person who promotes, holds, or is engaged in any wrestling contest in respect of which any of the provisions of this section or of regulations thereunder are not complied with is liable to a fine of twenty pounds.

Any constable may at any time of the day or night enter any premises in which he has reason to believe that a wrestling contest is being held, and may, if necessary, make such entry by force.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, make such regulations as he thinks necessary for any of the following purposes:—

Every person commits an offence, and is liable to a fine of twenty pounds or to imprisonment for one month, who prints, publishes, sells, or circulates any document purporting to be a programme of football or cricket matches or horse-racing or trotting events without express license in that behalf from the person or association of persons having the management and control thereof.