OBSCURE LEGAL LANGUAGE IN POLICE ACT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 81, 4 January 1950, Page 5

OBSCURE LEGAL LANGUAGE IN POLICE ACT

To those Bay of Plenty people who have had the fortune or, perhaps, the misfortune to be in court when a case is being conducted many must have wondered when the police lay a charge as to what all the various terms used mean. Actually it all comes from the Police Offences Act, which maintains the dignity and circumlocution of. legal language at its highest level of obscurity. It covers all offences 'from throwing stones to driving a dog or goat harnessed to a cart.

Recently, in a Magistrate’s Court, a man appeared to answer a charge that he permitted cattle to wit one bay gelding, i£o wander on a certain road. Section Charged Under

The section, in the Police Offences Act, under which he was charge ed, says that an offence is committed by any person who permits any cattle to be at large, or withcut proper guidance, or to wander, or to be herded or grazed in a public place. Cattle, in terms of the act “includes any horse, mare, gelding, colt, filly, ass, mule, bull, cow, ox,’'heifer, steer, calf, sheep, ram, ewe, lamb, goat and pig of any kind.” The last phrase leaves no loopholes. Another defendant was charged that he was the owner of a black retriever cross dog on a highway, to wit, the entrance to a public park which attacked an A. 8., whereby the life and limb of such person were endangered. “If it seems that the dog bit him I’ll have to plead guilty,” said the defendant when the charge was read. That is what it did mean and the defendant was fined 10s. The offences relating to good order, nuisances and obstructions in public places cover 31 sub-sections of the act, and for each of /them an offender is liable to a fine not exceeding £5. It\is an offence to!roll any cask, beat any carpet, fly any kite, use any bows and arrows, or catapult, or shanghai, or play any game to the annoyance of any person in any public place. Many boys have been aware of the sonorous words covering such escapades as: “Wantonly or maliciously disturbs any inhabitant by -ringing any door-bell, knocking at any door, blowing any horn, beating any 'drum, using any other noisy instrument in any public place, or ringing any firebell,” offences for which the maximum fine is £5. Defacing Property

A person commits an offence it he “places any placard or other document, writing, or painting on or otherwise defaces any house or building, or any wall, fence, lamppost, or- gate, without the consent of the occupier or owner thereof.” What is overlooked by the Police Offences Act is covered by the Public Works Act, in which several similar offences are set out. Under the latter act it is an offence for any person to “go to sleep in any vehicle in his charge, so as to leave any animal drawing the same without proper guidance.”