Circular, to forward additional copies to you for distribution among the members of your 31st Dec., local authority and the officers concerned, upon being informed of the number you require. It is very desirable that a copy of each of the enclosed documents should without delay be placed in the hands of the agricultural analyst and the official sampler or samplers, if any, appointed by your local authority. 19c6. Report to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries by the Official Agricultural Analyst for the Quarter ending * If the sample is in accordance with the statements in the invoice, circular, or If the sample is not in accordance with the statements in the invoice, circular, or NOTE.-If no samples have been analysed the Returns should be forwarded marked "nil" in order that the Board's Records may be complete. Total Number of Samples. Satisfactory... Signature of Agricultural Analyst_ Unsatisfactory Date_ CIRCULAR. LOCAL AUTHORITIES. 142 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Administration of the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1906. SIR, The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries desire me to bring under the notice of your local authority the provisions of the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1906, which on the 1st January will supersede the Act of 1893, and to offer certain suggestions as to its administration for the consideration of your local authority. The principal amendments of the law effected by the new Act are: (1) The actual percentages, and not merely the minimum percentages, of (4) In case of any feeding stuff artificially prepared otherwise than by (5) Provision is made for analysis by the official agricultural analyst of samples taken without any communication of the fact to the seller. (6) Local authorities are authorised to appoint official samplers who, at the expense of the local authority, can take samples of any fertiliser or feeding stuff without the consent of the owner. (7) Provision is made to secure sellers from unreasonable prosecutions, and for prescribing by Regulation the "limits of error" within which they will be free from civil liability in respect of the statutory warranty arising from the statement of percentages contained in invoices. (8) The Act applies to foods for poultry as well as foods for cattle, sheep, goats, swine and horses. Civil Liability of Sellers. In order that the provisions relating to the civil liability of sellers may be made operative, it will be desirable that officers of the local authority should inquire, as opportunity offers, as to the character of the invoices given by sellers of fertilisers and feeding stuffs delivered within their districts. If any failure to give the invoice required by the Act is brought under the notice of the local authority, the attention of the seller might be called in the first place to the requirements of the Act, and in the event of his persistently refusing or neglecting to give such invoice, the local authority should communicate with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries with a view to the consideration of the question whether proceedings should be instituted. Prevention of Fraud. In view of the provisions of the Act relating to criminal procedure, local authorities should institute inquiries with a view to ascertain whether any fraud exists within their districts in connection with the sale of fertilisers or feeding stuffs. For this purpose all reasonable facilities for having samples analysed by the agricultural analyst should be given to purchasers. The fee payable by purchasers who send samples to the agricultural analyst is to be fixed by the local authority; and the Board think that the importance of ascertaining the character of the trade carried on in their district would justify a local authority in arranging that for a specified period purchasers may send samples to the agricultural analyst free of charge. Circular, 31st Dec., 1906. Circular, 31st Dec., 1906. But however great the facilities that are given for analysis, it is not likely that the poorer and less educated buyers, or those who purchase manures and feeding stuffs in small quantities, will send any considerable number of samples to the analyst. In order to ascertain whether traders who supply such persons are dealing fraudulently, it will be necessary that the official sampler should take the initiative in procuring samples of the articles supplied to them. Such persons will not eadily co-operate with the official sampler unless the sampling is carried out without the knowledge of the seller; and it will therefore generally be necessary in these cases to take samples without communication of the fact to the seller. The Act provides (sec. 3 (4) (b) ) that agricultural analysts shall report to the Board in the prescribed manner the results of analyses of samples which have been divided into three parts, of which two are sent to the agricultural analyst and one to the seller; but it does not oblige the agricultural analyst to report on other samples. It would therefore seem desirable that arrangements should be made with agricultural analysts by local authorities for reports to them on all other samples analysed under the Act, similar to the provision made in the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs (General) Regulations, 1906, for reports to the Board of the samples above referred to, and the Board would be glad to receive copies of these reports. The Board believe that if any considerable number of these samples are taken without the knowledge of the seller, the collection and tabulation of information regarding such samples will be of material assistance to them in considering any question as to prosecution which may come before them, and will enable them to co-operate effectively with local authorities in obtaining the evidence necessary to secure convictions against sellers who are found to be carrying on a fraudulent trade. In cases where the local authority have reason to believe that a seller is carrying on a fraudulent trade they should instruct an official sampler to procure a sample with a view to criminal proceedings. The powers conferred by the Act (ss. 3 (2 and 8)) on official samplers with regard to sampling articles which have been sold or are exposed or kept for sale as fertilisers or as foods for cattle or poultry will probably be found sufficient to enable them to take the necessary sample, which should not only be divided and dealt with in the prescribed manner, but should be taken in accordance with the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs (Sampling, &c.) Regulations. On receipt of a communication from an official sampler who intends to take a sample with a view to a prosecution the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries will be glad to instruct one of their inspectors to confer with him and give him any information in their possession with regard to the seller of the article in question which may be of assistance to him. Sampling by Official Samplers. The Act (s. 3 (2)) provides that the official sampler shall at the request of the purchaser and on payment by him of the required fee take a sample for analysis by the agricultural analyst. If an official sampler were frequently called upon to take samples of articles supplied by firms of good repute, much time might be wasted and useless expense incurred, and it will probably be necessary for this reason to fix at a considerable sum the fee payable where the services of an official sampler are called for by a purchaser. But the Board desire to point out the desirability of making it widely known that the local authority would welcome information as to the delivery of purchases of fertilisers and feeding stuffs so that the official sampler may, in cases where he thinks action might be useful, take samples on behalf of the local authority which would entail no expense on the purchaser. This fact, and the names and addresses of the official agricultural analyst and the official samplers might with advantage be advertised from time to time. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, Secretary. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE ACT, 1906. An Act to amend the Law relating to Justices of the [4th August, 1906.] BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Sect. 3. A solicitor, if otherwise qualified, may be appointed a justice of the peace for any county, but it shall not be lawful for any solicitor being a justice, or any partner of his, to practice directly or indirectly before the justices for that county or any borough within the county. Notes. It is provided by section 2 (5) of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), that the chairman of the county council "shall, by virtue of his office, be a justice of the peace for the county;" and by section 22 of the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), that the chairman of a district council, unless a woman or personally disqualified by any Act, shall be, by virtue of his office, justice of the peace for the county in which the district is situate." The latter enactment applies to the mayor of a non-county borough (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73, ss. 21, 35). The Justices Qualification Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 18), under which no person was capable of becoming or being a justice for any county in which he practised and carried on the profession or business of an attorney, solicitor, or proctor, is repealed by section 5 and the schedule below. A solicitor, as such, does not now come within the words in section 22 of the Local Government Act, 1894, "personally disqualified by any Act." As a solicitor who is appointed chairman of a county council or district council (including the mayor of a non-county borough) becomes ipso facto a justice of the county, it would seem that the effect of section 3 of the present Act is to prohibit either him or any partner of his from practising directly or indirectly before the justices for the county or any borough within the county. This prohibition cannot apparently be removed, as section 4 below only allows of such an ex-officio justice being excluned from the exercise of his functions as such justice and not of his being removed from his office of justice: indeed the provisions of that section appear designed as a substitute for actual removal from office. Sect. 4. Any person who is a justice of the peace by virtue only of holding or having held any office may be excluded from the exercise of his functions as such justice by the same authority by which other justices can be removed from the commission of the peace. Provision as to of solicitors to the appointment be justices. Power with respect to ex-officio justices. Sect. 5.-(1) In this Act the expression "county" includes Interpretation any riding or division of a county. and repeal. G Sec. 5 (2). Extent of Act. Short title. (2) The enactments mentioned in the schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that schedule. Sect. 6. (1) This Act shall extend to Scotland with the following modifications: Sect. 7. This Act may be cited as the Justices of the Peace Act, 1906. ection 5. SCHEDULE ENACTMENTS REPEALED. Session and Short Title. Extent of Repeal. Note.-All the repeals in the schedule are consequent on the abolition by section I of the property qualification for county justices. Those given below affect enactments relating to local government, but are, with the exception of the repeal of 34 & 35 Vict. c. 18 (see Note to section 3 ante), purely verbal. |