§ Read 3a (according to Order).
§ Clause 1:
§ Prohibition of live quail.
§ 1.—(1) It shall not be lawful for any person to import into the United Kingdom any live quail during the period between the fourteenth day of February and the first day of July in any year.
§ (2) During the period aforesaid in every year goods prohibited to be imported by virtue of this Act shall be deemed to be included among the goods enumerated and described in the table of prohibitions and restrictions inwards contained in Section forty-two of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, and the provisions of that Act and of any Act amending or extending that Act shall apply accordingly.
§ (3) In this Act the expression "quail" means the bird known as coturnix coturnix.
§
VISCOUNT MERSEY had given Notice that he would move, in subsection (2),
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after the second "Act," to insert "except as hereinafter mentioned"; and after subsection (2) to insert the following new subsection:
(3) The provisions of Section 207 of the said Act shall not apply, and if the Commissioners of Customs are satisfied that any live birds have been imported in contravention of this Act, such birds shall be deemed and taken to be condemned and no claim for compensation shall be brought against any officer of Customs and Excise in respect thereof.
§ The noble Viscount said: My Lords, there are two small Amendments to this Bill which I ask your Lordships to pass in order to complete it. The first is consequential on the second, and I hope therefore that I may be allowed to move the two together. The Amendment is only machinery, and I have been asked to bring it forward on behalf of the Board of Customs. As your Lordships are aware, the Board of Customs are most meticulous and accurate in the discharge of their difficult duties, and any suggestion that they make in a Bill of this nature ought, of course, to receive the closest attention.
§ Section 42 of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, which is the Act cited in this one-clause measure for the prohibition of the import of living quails in the breeding season, says that goods which are on the prohibited list, if brought in, shall be forfeited and may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of. Section 207 of the same Act requires that in the event of a seizure of forfeited goods under the Customs Act, notice shall be given to the owner of the things, and he may within one month of the seizure signify that he claims the things, and thereupon proceedings for the forfeiture must be taken in a Court of Law. If the things seized are of a perishable nature or consist of horses or other animals, they may be sold by the direction of the Customs and the proceeds retained to await the result of any claim. Neither of these procedures is regarded by the Customs as appropriate to the case of live quails. To keep the birds possibly as long as a month would be extremely inconvenient to the Customs, and to sell them would be to defeat the purpose of the Act. In the unlikely event of illegal importations, the most convenient course would be for the Customs to liberate the birds, and it is with this object that the Amendment is suggested.
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The Amendment is to insert a new subsection (3) after subsection (2):
The provisions of Section 207 of the said Act shall not apply, and if the Commissioners of Customs are satisfied that any live birds have been imported in contravention of this Act, such birds shall be deemed and taken to be condemned and no claim for compensation shall be brought against any officer of Customs and Excise in respect thereof.
In this connection the word "condemned" does not mean condemned to death but condemned to living. There is only one other point to be mentioned in relation to the matter. It is that the Amendment would deprive an importer of the recourse to the Courts afforded by the general law and confer on the Customs unfettered power, but in the special circumstances the Government consider that it is very unlikely that such a case would occur, and they consider that the Amendment put forward by the Customs meets the case. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 1, line 15, after the second ("Act") insert ("except as hereinafter mentioned"). —(Viscount Mersey.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 1, line 17, at end, insert the following new subsection:
("(3) The provisions of Section 207 of the said Act shall not apply, and if the Commissioners of Customs are satisfied that any live birds have been imported in contravention of this Act, such birds shall be deemed and taken to be condemned and no claim for compensation shall be brought against any officer of Customs and Excise in respect thereof").—(Viscount Mersey.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.