H.—44.

CHATTELS TRANSFER ACT, 1924. Section 57 of the Chattels Transfer Act, 1924, provides for the protection of bailors of such chattels as are referred to in the Seventh Schedule to the Act without the necessity for registration of the agreements concerned, and, furthermore, it is provided in the Act that Orders in Council may be issued to extend the Seventh Schedule by the addition of further classes of chattels recognized as being the subject of " customary hire-purchase agreements." The Department has charge of the administration of this section of the Act, and whenever applications are received for the extension of the Schedule to include further classes of chattels thorough investigations are made by the district officers in each of the four centres of the Dominion as to the customary trade practices adopted in the disposal of these chattels and as to the desirability or otherwise of adding the names of such articles to the Schedule. During the past year applications were received in respect of electric food-coolers and electric incubators. The evidence obtained in respect of these two applications as to the methods of disposal of these classes of chattels was not considered sufficient to warrant their addition to the Schedule. TRADING-COUPONS. Several instances of alleged breaches of the Trading-coupons Act, 1931, were reported to the Department during the year. All these schemes were carefully examined, but the operations involved did not provide for the redemption of trading-coupons contrary to the provisions of the Act. In two cases theatre tickets were issued in connection with the sale of certain goods, and, while the Department held the view that the redemption of these tickets would justify action being taken to test the legality of the schemes, it was considered advisable in view of the small number of tickets issued to request the interests concerned to abandon the system. An offence under the Act as at present constituted is committed when a trading-coupon is redeemed otherwise than for cash. As the New Zealand statute can only be effective in respect of coupons redeemed within the Dominion, cognizance may have to be taken of the issue (in connection with the sale of goods in New Zealand) of trading-coupons redeemed overseas. The practice is generally limited at the present time to the sale of certain imported goods, except that in one case it applies to the sale of a locally-made product. In view of this method to circumvent the provisions of the Act, it may become necessary for an amendment to be made to the present statute. MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY. The report of the special Committee set up to investigate certain aspects of the industry, a summary of which appeared in the Department's report of last year, was followed by legislative action, and the Cinematograph Films Amendment Act, 1934, was placed on the statute-book. The Act provides, inter alia, for — (1) A list of films to be supplied by renters to the Hon. the Minister of Internal Affairs of all films which are intended for release during the film-renting season : (2) Provision is made for a statutory rejection right up to 25 per cent, of total quota of films booked : (3) That exhibitors must exercise the rejection right provided above within twenty-one days after receipt by the exhibitor of notice that film is available for exhibition : (4) A standard form of film-hiring contract to be approved by the Hon. the Minister of Internal Affairs : (5) The withholding of available film by renters from exhibitors is made an offence : (6) Subsection 2 of section 12 makes it an offence for an exhibitor to hire films in excess of the number reasonably required in his business. The Board of Trade Cinematograph Film Regulations gazetted in 1932 were declared by the Appeal Court to be ultra vires as repugnant to the Cinematograph Films Act, 1928. This latter difficulty has now been removed by section 13 of the amending Act of 1934, which reads— " (1) Nothing in the principal Act shall be construed to restrict the powers conferred on the Governor-General in Council by section twenty-six of the Board of Trade Act, 1919, and regulations may accordingly be made under that section in relation to the renting or exhibition of films in New Zealand." With this additional authority the Board of Trade Cinematograph Films Regulations of 1932 were re-enacted and gazetted on 4th April, 1935. In administering the regulations the Department obtains all necessary details regarding existing licenses and the proposals of applicants for new licenses in those towns or districts in respect of which new applications have been received. Before any application for a license is finally dealt with, the information so obtained is placed before a Stipendiary Magistrate, as an independent party, for consideration and recommendation as to whether or not the application should be acceded to. COMPANY-PROMOTION COMMISSION. The Department in its last annual report referred to the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into certain aspects and tendencies of company promotions and operations. The appointment of the Commission was made on 17th January, 1934. An interim report was submitted to His Excellency the Governor-General on 9th June, 1934, dealing exclusively with the constitution and policy of certain trust companies in New Zealand. A perusal of this report will clearly demonstrate the urgent need for and justification of the Department's representations for the appointment of the Commission.

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