THE DOG REGISTRATION ACT1880.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1307, 13 November 1880, Page 3

THE DOG REGISTRATION ACTIBBO.

Clauses 1,2 and 3 relating to matters of detail are omitted. KEQIBTRATION. Any person who shall keep any dog within the colony of a greater age than six months, for a period of fourteen days, without causing such dog to be registered, and such registration to be again made from year to year in manner hereinafter mentioned, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every such dog over and above the amount of any fee payable in respect of the registration of such dog. The owner of every dog exempted from charge for registration under the provisions of any Act, shall nevertheless cause every such dog to be registered, and such registration shall be renewed every year, in the same manner and subject to the same penalty in case of default as if such dog were not exempted, but no charge shall be made for such registration. The local authority shall appoint a sufficient number of registration offices at which dogs may be registered under the provisions of this Act, and at which the register-books required by this Act shall be kept ; and shall appoint Registrars, in each of such place? to keep such registers, and to ueceive all registration fees, and to make such entries in the Jegisters as by this Act required; and shall fix tbe amount of salary or remuneration of such Registrars. There shall be kept at every registra- . tion office a supply of dog collars having labels affixed thereon, whioh labels shall be numbered consecu- . tively from one upwards, and shall have marked thereon the name of the district and the year for which the same are issued. Any person shall be entitled to receive a collar iii respect of each dog that he registers. Duplicate collars shall be issued on payment of the original oost thereof, on affirmation that the original has been lost or stolen. The name and residence of all persons who shall procure such collars shall be entered in a register ♦book to be kept in the form in the Second Schedule hereto, at each registration office for that purpose, and opposite the name shall be registered the number on the collars respectively purchased by such persons, and a description of any dogs to which such collars are to be affixed ; and suoh register-book may be examined by any person within office hours on payment of a fee of sixpence. Every registration of a dog shall be made by the owner thereof, or some person on his behalf, delivering at some appointed registration office in the district where the owner of such dog either lives or has his place of business a description.of such dog 1 , together with the other particulars hereinbefor required to be entered in the register-book and paying the registration fee. Such desoripton shall be entered in the register-book, and the aforesaid owner or other person shall recieve a receipt for the registration fee, and a collar, to be worn on thb neok of the dog so registered. If any perron shall wilfully cause or permit to be inserted or omitted, in any such descripton, any matter or thing whatsoever contrary to or for the purpose of concealing the truth, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds. Every suoh registration shaft be deemed to be in fooe from the day upon which the same iitoll be made until the first day of Jannirytben next ensuing, and no longer ; and such registration again made in like manner from year to year. Except as herein provided the fee to be paid for the registration of every dog throughout the colon* shall be the sum of ten shillings. And until suoh amount shall have been paid, no suoh registration shall be deemed to have been duly made. But, in respect of every firat registration which shall be made after the month of July in any year, there shall be payable only one-half the amount of the registration fee. • ....!. Every registration made under this Act phaU be iq px<& throughout tbe colony,

and any person being the owner of a registf red dog may remove such dog to any other district than the one wherein such dog is registered without payment of any fee. Where the ownership of a dog is changed, the registration of such dog shall continue good, and the registration collar shall, upon the application of the new owner, remain with the dog, but the name of the new owner of such dog shall, upon application by him, be entered in the register book in substitution of the name of the previous owner thereof without payment of any fee , and thereupon, for the purpose of this Act, such new owner shall take the place of the previous owner. In any proceedings under this Act the proof of due registration, or that any dog is under the age of six months, or has not been kept for a period of teurteen days by the owner thereof, shall in each case be on the defendant. Dogs without collars having 1 the proper registration-labels thereon, shall prima facie be deemed to be unregistered, and any person or his agent upon whose land such dog may be found, or any person j duly authorized by the local authority, j may destroy any such dog.

INJURIES BY DOGS. Any Court of summary jurisdiction may take cognizance of a complaint that a dog-, whether at large or not, is dangerous and not kept under proper control ; and, if it appears to the Court having cognizance of euoh complaint that such dog is dangerous, the Court may make an order in a summary way directing the dog to he kept by the owner under proper control, or destroyed ; and any person failing to comply with such order shall be liable to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings for every day during which he fails to comply with such order. Any person who shall permit any dog which shall be known to be dangerous, or to have bitten or injured any person or any cattle or other property, to go at large, whether with a registered collar affixed to it or not, without being muzzled, in such a manner as will admit of the animal breathing and drinking without obstruction, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings ; and any such dog so at large may be forthwith seized and killed by any constable. If any dog shall, on any highway or any unenclosed place, rush at, attack, or startle any person or any horse, cattle, or other animal, whereby the life or limbs of any person shall be endangered, or any property be injured or endangered, siich dog shall be liable to be immediately killed ; and the owner or keeper of every such dog shall, on conviction, forfeit and pay a penalty or sum of not more than five pounds for every such offence, over and above the amount of any damage which such dog may have occasioned. Any person who shall see a dog, being at large, biting or attacking any person, or any horse, sheep, or cattle, or who shall himself be bitten or attacked by such dog, may destroy the same, without being answerable for damage occasioned thereby. The owner or the agent of the owner of any cattle or shoep, or any servant or por6on employed by such owner or agent, may destroy any dog running at large amongst such! cattle or sheep. The owner of every dog shall be liable in damages for injury done by his dog, and it shall not be necessary for the party seeking damages to show a previous mischievous propensity in such dog, or the owner's knowledge of such mischievous propensity, or that the injury was attributable to neglect on the part of the owner of the dog.

OFFENCES. If any person shall falsely make or counterfeit, or, knowing the same to be false or counterfeit, purchase, use, or have in his possession any label resembling or apparently intended to resemble or pass for a metal label supplied at some registration office under this Act, every such person shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. If any person shall, after the first clay of January in every year, have in hi* following or keep any dog wearing a label issued in any previous year, which dog shall not have been registered for the then current year, such person shall bo liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds. And if any peraon shall have in his following or keep any dog wearing a lable issued in respect of another dog, such person fahall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding ten pounds. If any person shall wilfully or maliciously remove from the neck of any dog the collar required by this Act to be worn by such dog, or shall so remove the metal label of registration affixed to any collar worn by such dog, such person shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, and also shall forfeit and pay to the owner of any dog that may have been destroyed under the provisions of this Act, and in consequence of the removal of such collar or label, the full value of the dog so destroyed. All penalties and sums of money incurred or payable under this Act shall be recoverable in a summary manner. All feps, fines, and penalties received under this Act shall be paid by the person receiving the same into the District fund : Provided, however, that one moiety of every fine or penalty imposed under this Act may, if the convicting Justices so direct, be paid to the person or persons who shall sue for the same, or who shall give such imfomatiou as may lead to conviction. All the expenses incident to the administration of this Act shall be paid out of the District Fund. Nothing in this Act contained shall derogate from the previsions of any Act for the time being in force in relation to the rabbit nuisance. The several enactments enumerable in the Third Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed.