§ Order for Committee read.
920§ MR. WARTONobjected to the Bill being taken at so late an hour (5 o'clock).
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid, it was not usual to object, as the Committee was only to be taken pro formâ. The block against the Bill would still remain afterwards.
§ MR. WARTONsaid this was a great deal more than a pro formâ stage, for some very important provisions were to be introduced—one especially dealing with forged telegrams.
§ Bill considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§
On the Motion of Mr. FAWCETT, the following new Clauses were inserted:—Page 1, after Clause 1, insert the following Clause:—
This Act shall extend to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and the Royal Courts of the Channel Islands shall register the same accordingly.
Page 4, after Clause 9, insert the following Clause:—
§ (Forgery of telegrams.)
§ "Every person who forges or wilfully and without due authority alters a telegram or utters a telegram knowing the same to be forged, or wilfully and without due authority altered, or who transmits by telegraph as a telegram, or utters as a telegram, any message or communication which he knows not to be a telegram, shall, whether he had or had not an intent to defraud, be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding twelve months.
§ "For the purposes of this section the expression 'telegram' means a written or printed message or communication sent to or delivered at a Post Office, or the office of a Telegraph Company, for transmission by telegraph, or delivered by the Post Office or a Telegraph Company as a message or communication transmitted by telegraph.
§ "The expression 'Telegraph Company' means any Company or persons working any telegraph.
§ "The expression 'telegraph' has the same meaning as in 'The Telegraph Act, 1869,' and the Acts amending the same."
§ Page 6, after Clause 12, insert the following Clause:—
§ (Execution of instruments of the Postmaster General in substitution for s. 7 of 44 and 45 Vic. c. 20.)
§ "Any instrument requiring to be executed by the Postmaster General, or to which he is a party, may be executed by any of the secretaries or assistant secretaries of the Post Office in the name of the Postmaster General, and, 921 if so executed, shall be deemed to have been executed by the Postmaster General, and shall have effect accordingly.
§ "Any instrument purporting to he executed by any of the secretaries or assistant secretaries of the Post Office in the name of the Postmaster General shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been so executed without proof of the official character of the person appearing to have executed the same."
§ Page 6, after Clause 13, insert the following:—
§ (Substitution of 32 and 33 Vic c. 18, s. 1, for repealed section 33 of 31 and 32 Vic. c, 119, in the Telegraph Act, 1878.)
§ "Whereas, by sections four and five of 'The Telegraph Act, 1878,' section thirty-three of 'The Regulation of Railways Act, 1868,' is, together with other sections of that Act, applied to the differences therein mentioned:
§ (32 and 33 Vic. c.18.)
§ "And whereas the said section thirty-three was repealed, and another section in lieu thereof enacted by 'The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1869,' and it is expedient to substitute a reference to the last-mentioned section for the reference to the repealed section: Be it therefore enacted as follows:—
§ (41 and 42 Vic. c. 76, 31 and 32 Vic. c. 119, 32 and 33 Vie. c. 18.)
§ "Any reference in 'The Telegraph Act, 1878,' to section thirty-three of 'The Regulation of Railways Act, 1868,' shall he construed to refer to section one of 'The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1869.'"
§ Schedule, page 9, line 55, column 3, before "section 11," insert "section seven and."
§ Bill reported; to be printed, as amended [Bill 298]; re-committed for To-morrow, at Two of the clock.