This Act may be cited as the Motor-vehicles Amendment Act, 1936, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Motor-vehicles Act, 1924 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section two of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the definition of the term “trailer”, and substituting the following definition:—

The said section two is hereby further amended by adding the following definition:—

Paragraph (c) of section two of the Motor-vehicles Amendment Act, 1927, is hereby consequentially repealed.

This section shall come into force on the first day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-six.

Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding subsection and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act or in any regulation or by-law, no person shall drive any motor-vehicle at a speed exceeding thirty miles an hour on any road, street, or other place to which the public have access in any borough or town district or in any other locality that is declared by the Minister of Transport by notice published in the Gazette to be a closely populated locality for the purposes of this section. In every locality in respect of which a declaration has been made under this section the speed-limit fixed by this section shall be indicated by such signs to be erected by such persons as may be prescribed.

The Minister of Transport may by notice published in the Gazette exclude any road or street or other place to which the public have access in any borough or town district from the limitation as to speed imposed by the last preceding subsection. The fact that such limitation is not in force shall be indicated by such signs to be erected by such persons as may be prescribed.

Nothing in this section shall operate—

If any person drives a motor-vehicle on any road, street, or other place to which the public have access without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road, street, or other place, he shall be guilty of an offence.

A first or second conviction for an offence under this section shall not render the offender liable to be disqualified under section twenty-two of the principal Act from holding or obtaining a motor-driver’s license for a longer period than, in the case of a first conviction, one month, or, in the case of a second conviction, three months.

Where any person is convicted of an offence under this section and at any time within three years prior to the conviction has been convicted of an offence under section twenty-seven or section twenty-eight of the principal Act, the last-mentioned conviction shall, for the purposes of the last preceding subsection, be deemed to be a conviction for an offence under this section.

Where an accident arising directly or indirectly from the use of a motor-vehicle occurs to any person or to any horse or vehicle in charge of any person, the driver of the motor-vehicle shall stop, and shall also ascertain whether he has injured any person, in which event it shall be his duty to render all practicable assistance to the person injured.

In the case of any such accident (whether any person has been injured thereby or not) the driver of the motor-vehicle shall, if required, give to any constable, or to any person concerned, his name and address, and also the name and address of the owner and the registered number and the distinguishing mark or marks of the motor-vehicle. If the accident involves injury to any person and has not already been reported to a constable the driver shall forthwith report the same at the nearest police-station.

Every person who fails to comply with any obligation imposed on him by subsection one hereof commits a crime, and is liable on indictment to imprisonment for a term of five years or to a fine of five hundred pounds; and every person who fails to comply with any obligation imposed on him by subsection two hereof commits an offence and is liable to a fine of twenty pounds.

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

Section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “ten pounds”, and substituting the words “fifty pounds”.

In any proceedings for an offence punishable on summary conviction against any Act, regulation, or by-law relating to the use of motor-vehicles, the Court may dismiss the information if it is satisfied that the person charged has been prejudiced in his defence by any unreasonable delay in instituting the proceedings, or in notifying him of the time, place, and nature of the offence.

In all proceedings under the principal Act, or under any regulation made under that Act, or under any by-law relating to the use of motor-vehicles, for an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine of an amount not exceeding fifty pounds, and whether by way of hearing in the first instance or by way of appeal, or otherwise howsoever, the Magistrate or Court may receive as evidence any affidavit filed in the Court by or on behalf of the defendant, or any letter or statement in writing sent to the Court by or on behalf of the defendant, or any other evidence that the Magistrate or Court thinks fit, whether it would, apart from this section, be legally admissible evidence or not:

Provided that, except by special direction of the Magistrate or Court, this section shall not apply in any case where it appears to the Magistrate or Court that the defendant’s usual place of residence is less than fifty miles by road from the place of hearing.

Without limiting in any way the authority conferred on the Governor-General by section thirty-six of the principal Act to make provision for all matters deemed necessary for the due administration of and for giving full effect to that Act, it is hereby expressly declared that the Governor-General, acting under the authority of the said section, may make regulations as follows:—

The power to make regulations conferred on the Governor-General by section thirty-six of the principal Act is hereby extended to include power to make regulations for the control of any form of traffic other than motor traffic in so far as, in the opinion of the Governor-General, the control of that other traffic is necessary for the proper regulation of motor traffic.

Without limiting the extent of the power conferred by the last preceding subsection, it is hereby expressly declared that such power shall include power to make regulations—

The Lights on Vehicles Act, 1915, and the Lights on Vehicles Amendment Act, 1926, shall be deemed to be repealed on a date to be fixed in that behalf by the Minister by notice published in the Gazette.

The Minister of Transport may at any time, by notice published in the Gazette, disallow, either wholly or in part, any by-law made by any local authority, whether before or after the passing of this Act, relating to motor traffic or to any other form of traffic, if in his opinion the subject-matter of the by-law should not be dealt with otherwise than by the principal Act or by regulations of general application made under the principal Act, or if in his opinion the by-law, in so far as it relates to or may affect motor-traffic, is unreasonable or undesirable.

On any such disallowance the by-law shall, to the extent to which it is so disallowed, become wholly void as if it had then been revoked.

Any such disallowance shall take effect as aforesaid either on the day of the publication of the notice of disallowance in the Gazette or on such later date as may be specified in that behalf in the notice.

Section thirty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection five the words “in so far as they relate to motor-vehicles and motor-vehicular traffic”.

Any person shall, on making application in that behalf in the prescribed form, be entitled to a certificate under the hand of the Registrar or a Deputy Registrar containing such of the particulars recorded in any register of motor licenses, kept pursuant to section thirteen of the principal Act, as are mentioned in the application.

Every application under this section shall be accompanied by such fee, not exceeding one shilling, as may be prescribed, but no fee shall be payable in respect of an application made by any officer or servant of the Crown or of a local authority where the information is required in the course of his official duties.

Part I of the Schedule to the Motor-vehicles Amendment Act, 1927, is hereby amended by omitting from paragraph four the words “motor-coach or”.

This section shall come into force on the first day of June, nineteen hundred and thirty-seven.