CAP. 74 66.-(1.) The description of an offence against this 41 & 42 VICE. Act in the words of this Act, or of the Order of Council or regulation of a local authority under which the offence arises, or in similar words, shall be sufficient General in law. (2.) Any exception, exemption, excuse, or qualification, whether it does or not accompany the description of the offence in this Act, or in the Order of Council or regulation of a local authority under which the offence arises, may be proved by the defendant, but need not be specified or negatived in the information; and, if it is so specified or negatived, proof in relation to the matter so specified or negatived shall not be required on the part of the informant provision as toprocedure (3.) A warrant of commitment under this Act shall [Amended not be held void by reason of any defect therein, if only Vict. c. 43, by 47 & 48 there is a valid conviction to sustain the warrant, and it s. 4] is alleged in the warrant that the person named therein has been convicted. (4.) Where the owner or person in charge of an animal is charged with an offence against this Act relative to disease or to any illness of the animal, he shall be presumed to have known of the existence of the disease or illness, unless and until he shows to the satisfaction of the court of summary jurisdiction before which he is charged that he had not knowledge thereof, and could not with reasonable diligence have obtained that knowledge. (5.) Where a person is charged with an offence against this Act in not having duly cleansed or disinfected any place, vessel, vehicle, or thing belonging to him or under his charge, and a presumption against him on the part of the prosecution is raised, it shall lie on him to prove the due cleansing and disinfecting thereof. (6.) A person charged with an offence against this Act may, if he thinks fit, tender himself to be examined on his own behalf, and thereupon he may give evidence in the same manner and with the like effect and consequences as any other witness. (7.) Every offence against this Act shall be deemed to have been committed, and every cause of complaint or matter for summary proceeding under this Act, or an Order of Council, or regulation of a local authority, shall be deemed to have arisen, either in any place where the same actually was committed or arose, or in any place where the person charged or complained of or proceeded against happens to be at the time of the 41 & 42 VICT. institution or commencement of the charge, complaint, or proceeding. CAP. 74. (8.) Notwithstanding anything in any Act relating to the metropolitan police or to municipal corporations or in any other Act, such part not exceeding one half of every penalty or forfeiture recovered under this Act (except in proceedings under the Customs Acts) as the court of summary jurisdiction before which it is recovered thinks fit, shall be paid to the person who proceeds for the same, and the residue thereof shall be applied as if this section had not been enacted. TELEGRAPH ACT, 1878. 41 & 42 Vict. c. 76. An Act to make further provision respecting the Post Office Telegraphs. [16th August, 1878.] BE it enacted by the Queen'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 · 1. This Act may be cited as the Telegraph Act, short title. 1878. 2. In the construction of this Act, unless there is Definitions. something inconsistent in the context, words and expressions shall have the same meanings as in the Telegraph Act, 1863, and in addition thereto The expressions "street" and "public road" shall respectively include any highway. The expression "Act of Parliament" means any Act of Parliament, whether public, general, local and personal, or private, and includes the order confirmed by any such Act, and includes a certificate granted by the Board of Trade under the Railways Construction Facilities Act, 1864: c. 3. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 73. The expression Telegraph Acts" includes the 26 & 27 Vict. Telegraph Act, 1863, the Telegraph Act Amend- c. 112. ment Act, 1866, the Telegraph Act, 1868, the 29 & 30 Vict. Telegraph Act, 1869, the Telegraph Act, 1870, this 31 & 32 Vicc. Act and any Acts or parts of Acts incorporated c. 110. with such Acts or referred to therein, any or either of them, and such several Acts may be cited 33 & 34 Vict. together as the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1878: The expression "undertaking" means the works or undertaking of whatever nature the execution of which is authorised by an Act of Parliament as above defined : The expression "undertakers " means the parties, whether company, commissioners, trustees, corporations, or private persons, empowered by an Act of Parliament as above defined to execute an undertaking, and any lessee or tenant thereof: The expression "agents" includes contractors, and c. 88. 41 & 42 VICT. CAP. 76. Amend ment of 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112 as to consents. also the officers, engineers, workmen, or servants, as well of the Postmaster General, undertakers, bodies, or persons, as of his or their contractors: The expression "telegraphic line" means telegraphs, posts, and any work (within the meaning of the Telegraph Act, 1863), and also any cables, apparatus, pneumatic or other tube, pipe, or thing whatsoever used for the purpose of transmitting telegraphic messages or maintaining telegraphic communication, and includes any portion of a telegraphic line as defined by this Act: The expressions "alteration," "alter," and "altering" in respect of a telegraphic line, include the substitution of any new line or portion of a line, either in the same place or in some other place, also any removal of or other dealing with any telegraphic line or any part of such line. 3. Where any body or person (within the meaning of the Telegraph Act, 1863,) having power under the said Act to give or withhold their consent to the Postmaster General placing telegraphs and posts (within the meaning of the said Act) in, under, upon, along, over, or across a street or public road, or any estuary or branch of the sea, or the shore or bed of any tidal water, or where any proprietors, lessees, directors, or persons having the control of any railway or canal (within the meaning of the said Act), and having power under the said Act to give or withhold a consent to the Postmaster General placing telegraphs and posts under, in, upon, along, or across such railway or canal, fail within twenty-one days after being required to do so by the Postmaster General to give their consent, or attach to their consent any terms, conditions, or stipulations to which the Postmaster General objects, or withdraw a consent, a difference shall be deemed to have arisen between the Postmaster General and such body or person, proprietors, lessees, directors, or persons (as the case may be), and that difference shall be determined in manner hereinafter provided, and the authority by whom the difference is to be determined may, if after hearing all parties concerned they think it just, give their consent either uuconditionally or subject to such pecuniary or other terms, conditions, and stipulations as they may think just; and that consent shall for all purposes be of the same effect as if it were a consent given under the Telegraph Act, 1863, to the Postmaster General by such body or person, proprietors, lessees, directors, or persons. CAP. 76. Differences to be deter county 4. Where any difference arises under this Act or the 41 & 42 VICT. Telegraph Act, 1863, between the Postmaster General and any body or person having any power, jurisdiction, or control over or relating to a street or public road, or relating to having power under the last-mentioned Act to give or a street or withhold a consent to the placing of telegraphs and public road posts in, under, upon, along, or across a street or public mined by road, such difference shall in England or Wales and stipendiary Ireland be referred to the police or stipendiary magis- magistrate, trate, having jurisdiction within the district in which court judge, the difference has arisen, or if there be no such magis- or sheriff. trate, then to the judge of the county court having jurisdiction within such district, and in Scotland to the sheriff, and such magistrate, judge, and sheriff are respectively empowered and required to hear and determine 32 & 33 Vict. such difference, and sections thirty to thirty-three, both c. 18, s. 1. inclusive, of the Regulation of Railways Act, 1868, for 31 & 32 shall apply to every difference so referred to such Vict. c. 119 s. 33-by 47. magistrate, judge, or sheriff (as the case may be) in & 43 Vict. c. like manner as if he were an arbitrator appointed pur- 76, s. 17. suant to those sections, and as if the Postmaster General, body, or person between whom the difference has arisen were companies within the meaning of those sections. Provided always, that in case either the Postmaster General or the body or person between whom the difference has arisen shall be dissatisfied with the award or decision of such magistrate, judge, or sheriff, the party so dissatisfied may within twentyone days after such award or decision require, by a notice in writing given to the other party, that the difference shall be referred to the Railway Commissioners. substituted as to 5. The differences so required to be referred by the General last preceding section to the Railway Commissioners provisions and all other differences under this Act, except a arbitration. difference between the Postmaster General and any body or person having any right, power, jurisdiction, or control in, over, or relating to any estuary or branch of the sea or the shore or bed of any tidal water, shall be referred to and shall be determined by the Railway Commissioners for the time being; and every difference referred to them under this Act shall be conducted by the Railway Commissioners in the same manner as any other proceeding is conducted by them under the Acts relating to those Commissioners; and it shall be the duty of the Railway Commissioners, and they are hereby empowered, to undertake and determine any difference referred to them under this Act; and any difference between the Postmaster |