A.D. 1878.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

MISCHIEF.

SECTION 264.

PRELIMINARY.

Nothing shall be an offence under any provision contained in this 5 chapter unless it is done without legal justification or excuse, and without any claim of right founded either on a mistake of law or on a mistake of fact, nor unless the offender either intended to cause the event constituting the offence, or knowingly ran the risk of causing it by some act which he knew would probably cause it. 10

The provisions of this chapter shall extend as well to cases in which the offender is in possession of any property to which any injury is done as to other cases, and as well to consequences intentionally caused by an omission to discharge any legal duty, as to consequences caused by acts.

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SECTION 265.

ARSON.

Arson is the act of setting fire—

To any building, hovel, shed, or other permanent erection what

ever;

Or to any stack of cultivated vegetable produce, or of wood or bark, or of any mineral or vegetable fuel, or of gorse, heath, or fern; Or to any crop of cultivated vegetable produce, or to any wood, coppice, or plantation of trees, or to any heath, gorse, or fern;

Or to any mine;

Or to any ship, whether in a complete or unfinished state; Or to any of Her Majesty's military, naval, or victualling stores or other ammunition of war.

SECTION 266.

PUNISHMENT OF ARSON AND ATTEMPTS TO COMMIT ARSON.

(a.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for life, who commits arson.

(b.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to fourteen years penal servitude: (i.) Who attempts to commit arson;

(ii.) Who sets fire or attempts to set fire to anything in, against, or under any building or other thing the setting fire to which

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would amount to arson, and which building or other thing is A.D. 1878. likely to catch fire from the thing set on fire.

Every male under sixteen years of age who commits any offence against this section shall be liable to be whipped once.

SECTION 267.

MISCHIEF BY GUNPOWDER.

(a.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for life, who by the explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance throws 10 down or damages the whole or any part of any dwelling-house any person being therein, or the whole or any part of any building so as to endanger the life of any person.

(b.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for fourteen years, 15 who places or throws any gunpowder or other explosive substance in, into, upon, under, against, or near any building, ship, or vessel with intent to destroy or damage any such building, ship, or vessel, or any engine, machinery, working tools, fixtures, or chattels, whether or not any explosion takes place, and whether or not any damage is 20 caused thereby.

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Every male under sixteen years of age who commits any offence against this section shall be liable to be whipped once.

SECTION 268.

INJURIES TO RAILWAY TRAINS.

(a.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be hable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for life, who, with intent to obstruct, upset, overthrow, injure, or destroy any engine, tender, carriage, or truck using any railway, does or causes to be done anything whatever to any part of the railway, or to any 30 machinery or signal belonging to it or near to it, or to any such engine, carriage, or truck.

(b.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to two years imprisonment and hard labour, who by any unlawful act, or by any wilful omission or 35 neglect, obstructs or causes to be obstructed any engine, tender, carriage, or truck using any railway.

Every male under sixteen years of age who commits an offence against this section shall be liable to be whipped once.

A.D. 1878.

SECTION 269.

MISCHIEF TO SHIPS.

(a.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for life:

(i.) Who casts away or in anywise destroys any ship or vessel 5 whatever, whether in a complete or unfinished state; or,

(ii.) Who does anything tending to the immediate loss or destruction of any ship, vessel, or boat; or,

(iii.) Who, with intent to bring any ship, vessel, or boat into danger, masks, alters, or removes any light or signal, or exhibits 10 any false light or signal.

(b.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be
liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for fourteen
years,

(i.) Who destroys any part of any ship or vessel in distress, wrecked, 15
stranded, or cast on shore, or any goods, merchandise, or articles
of any kind belonging to such ship or vessel.

(ii.) Attempts to cast away or destroy any ship or vessel whatever,
whether in a complete or unfinished state.

(c.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be 20 liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for seven years:

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(i.) Who damages with intent to destroy or render it useless any
ship or vessel, whether complete or incomplete, by any means
other than fire, gunpowder, or other explosive substance; or,
(ii.) Who cuts away, casts adrift, removes, alters, defaces, or des-
troys any boat, buoy, buoy rope, perch, or mark used or intended
for the guidance of seamen for the purposes of navigation, or
who does any act with intent to do any of the things aforesaid,
or who in any other manner injures or conceals any of the 30
things aforesaid.

Every male under sixteen who commits any offence against this section shall be liable to be whipped once.

SECTION 270.

INJURIES TO SEA WALLS AND WORKS CONNECTED WITH WATER.

(a.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for life:

(i.) Who breaks down, cuts down, or otherwise damages or destroys

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Any sea bank or sea wall, or the bank, dam, or wall of or A.D. 1878.
belonging to any water, whereby any land or building is,
or is in danger of being, overflowed or damaged; or,
Any work belonging to any port, harbour, dock, or reservoir,
or on or belonging to any navigable river or canal; or,
Any bridge (whether over any stream of water or not) or
any viaduct or aqueduct over or under which any high-
way, railway, or canal passes; or,

(ii.) Who does any injury with intent and so as thereby to render
dangerous or impassable any such bridge, viaduct, or aque-
duct, or any highway, railway, or canal passing over or under
the same or any part thereof.

(b.) Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall
be liable upon conviction thereof to penal servitude for seven years :
(i.) Who cuts off, draws up, or removes any piles, chalk, or other

materials fixed in the ground and used for securing any sea bank
or sea wall, or the bank, dam, or wall of any other water; or,
(ii.) Who, with intent and so as thereby to obstruct and prevent
the carrying on or completing or maintaining the navigation of
any navigable river, or canal, opens or draws up any flood-gate
or sluice, or does any injury or mischief to such river or canal;

or,

(iii.) Who cuts through, breaks down, or otherwise destroys the
dam, flood-gate, or sluice of any fishpond, or of any water being
private property, or in which there is any private right of
fishery, with intent thereby to take or destroy any of the fish
therein, or so as thereby to cause the loss or destruction of any
of them; or,

(iv.) Who puts lime or any other noxious material in any river,
with intent to destroy any fish then being or afterwards to be
put therein; or

(v.) Who cuts through, breaks down, or otherwise destroys the
dam or flood-gate of any millpond, reservoir, or pool.

Every male under sixteen years of age who commits any offence 35 under this section shall be liable to be whipped once.

SECTION 271.

INJURIES TO CATTLE.

Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall upon conviction thereof be liable to fourteen years penal servitude, who 40 kills, maims, wounds, or causes grievous bodily harm to any cattle.

Every tame beast used for food or labour shall be cattle within the meaning of this section, whether the person in whose posses

A.D. 1878. sion such beast is at the time when the offence is committed upon it uses or intends to use it for either of those purposes or not.

SECTION 272.

INJURIES TO MACHINERY AND TO MINES.

Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be 5 liable upon conviction thereof to seven years penal servitude, and if a male under sixteen years of age to be whipped once:

(a.) Who cuts, breaks, destroys, or damages with intent to destroy or render useless any goods or articles in any stage of manufacture, or who by force enters any house, shop, building, or place with 10 intent to commit any such offence; or

(b.) Who cuts, breaks, destroys, or damages with intent to destroy or render useless any machine or engine, whether fixed or movable, used or intended to be used for any agricultural operation, or prepared for or employed in any manufacture, other than the manu- 15 facture of woven goods, or any tool or implement, whether fixed or movable, prepared for or employed in any such manufacture; or

(c.) Who by any unlawful act done to any mine, or to any thing whatever, movable or immovable, used in conducting the business thereof, or by causing any water to flow into it by any means what- 20 ever, destroys or damages the mine or hinders, obstructs, or delays the working thereof, or attempts to do so; or,

(d.) Who wholly or partially cuts through, severs, breaks, unfastens, or damages with intent to destroy or render useless any rope, chain, or tackle of whatever material used in any mine, or upon any way 25 or work connected therewith, or employed in working it; or

(e.) Who cuts or otherwise destroys any hop binds growing on poles in any plantation of hops; or

(f.) Who injures or removes anything whatever forming part of or used in or about any electric or magnetic telegraph, or in the 30 working thereof, or prevents or obstructs in any manner whatever the sending, conveyance, or delivery of any communication by any such telegraph.

SECTION 273.

GENERAL PROVISION AS TO MISCHIEF.

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Everyone shall be guilty of an indictable offence, and shall be liable upon conviction thereof to the punishments herein-after mentioned, who commits any damage, injury, or spoil upon any real or personal property whatever, whether of a public or private nature, to the value of one pound, for which no punishment is herein-before 40 provided; that is to say,