The several articles named or described in the Second Schedule hereto shall be deemed to be poisons within the meaning of this Part of this Act.

The Governor may from time to time by Order in Council declare that any article in such Order named shall be deemed a poison within the meaning of this Part of this Act.

Such Order shall be gazetted, and on the expiration of three months from the date of the Gazette containing such Order the article named in such Order shall be deemed to be a poison within the meaning of this Part of this Act.

It shall not be lawful for any person to sell, or keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or compounding, poisons in any part of New-Zealand, unless such person is registered under this Act and conforms to such regulations as to the keeping, dispensing, and selling of such poisons as are from time to time prescribed by the Governor in Council, which regulations the Governor in Council is hereby authorised from time to time to make.

The Governor may from time to time, by warrant under his hand, appoint persons to be Registrars under this Part of this Act, and assign to each such Registrar the district within which he shall act.

Each Registrar shall have an office at such town or place as the Governor from time to time directs, and at such office he shall keep the register for the district for which he is appointed.

Any person who wishes to sell, or keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or compounding, poisons in any district for which a Registrar has been appointed may be registered under this Part of this Act, without fee or reward, on application to the Registrar personally or by registered letter.

The register to be kept for each district shall be in accordance with the form in the Third Schedule hereto, and such register shall be called “The Register of Vendors of Poisons for the [Naming the district].”

It shall be the duty of the Registrar of the district to make and keep a correct register, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, of all persons in the district registered under this Part of this Act, and to erase the names of all registered persons who have died or removed from the district or ceased to carry on business, and from time to time to make the necessary alterations in the addresses of the persons so registered.

To enable the Registrar duly to fulfil the duties imposed upon him he may, by registered letter addressed to any registered person at his address on the register, inquire whether he has ceased to carry on business or has changed his residence.

If no answer is returned to such letter within the period of six months from the sending thereof, a second letter of similar purport shall be sent in like manner; and if no answer is given thereto within three months from the date thereof, it shall be lawful to erase the name of such person from the register:

Provided that the Registrar upon sufficient cause shown to him may restore such name to the register.

Every Registrar of Births and Deaths on receiving notice of the death of any person registered under this Act shall forthwith transmit by post to the Registrar under this Act for the district in which such death took place a certificate under his own hand of such death with the particulars of the time and place of death.

On receipt of such certificate the said Registrar shall erase the name of such deceased person from the register if such deceased person is registered in his register, and if not he shall send the certificate to the Registrar in whose register such deceased person is registered, and on the receipt thereof the last-named Registrar shall erase the name of the deceased person from the register.

The Registrar for each district shall in the month of January in every year cause to be printed and published, and authorise to be sold, a correct register of all persons registered in his register.

In such register the names shall be in alphabetical order according to the surnames, with the respective residences, in the form in the Third Schedule hereto or to the like effect, of all persons appealing on the Register of Vendors of Poisons on the thirty-first day of December last preceding.

Such printed register shall be called “The Register of Vendors of Poisons for the [Naming the district].”

A printed copy of any such register for the time being purporting to be so printed and published as aforesaid, or any certificate under the hand of the said Registrar, shall be evidence in all Courts and before all Justices and others that the persons therein specified are registered under this Act; and the absence of the name of any person from such printed register shall be evidence, until the contrary is made to appear, that such person is not so registered.

Every person who sells, or keeps an open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compounding, poisons, not being registered under this Act, or fails to conform with any regulations as to the keeping or selling of poisons, is liable on summary conviction before any two or more Justices to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

It shall not be lawful to sell any poison unless the box, bottle, Vessel, wrapper, or cover in which such poison is contained is distinctly labelled with the name of the poison and the word “Poison,” and with the name and address of the vendor of the poison.

It shall not be lawful to sell any poison specified in Part I of the Second Schedule hereto, or declared under section two hereof to be a poison within the meaning of this Act, to any person unknown to the vendor unless introduced by some person known to the vendor; and on every sale of any such poison the vendor shall before delivery make or cause to be made an entry in a book to be kept for that purpose stating in the form in the Fourth Schedule hereto the date of the sale, the name and address of the purchaser, the name and quantity of the poison sold, and the purpose for which it is stated by the purchaser to be required, to which entry the signature of the purchaser and of the person (if any) who introduced him shall be affixed.

Every person who sells poison otherwise than as herein provided is liable, on summary conviction before two Justices, to a fine not exceeding five pounds for the first offence, and to a fine not exceeding ten pounds for the second or any subsequent offence.

For the purposes of this section the person on whose behalf any sale is made by any apprentice or servant shall be deemed to be the vendor.

The provisions of this section which are solely applicable to poisons in Part I of the Second Schedule hereto, or which require that the label shall contain the name and address of the vendor, do not apply—

Every person registered under this Act and every vendor of poison shall produce to any constable whenever requested to do so the book required to be kept as aforesaid, and if requested so to do a copy of any entries made therein.

For any act or default contrary to the provisions of the last preceding section done or made by any such registered person or any vendor of poison he shall be liable to a fine of not exceeding five pounds and not less than one pound.

No person shall sell any arsenic unless the same is before the sale thereof mixed with soot or indigo in the proportion of one ounce of soot or half an ounce of indigo at the least to one pound of arsenic, and so in proportion for any greater or less quantity; and if any such sale is made contrary to the provisions of this section the vendor shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds:

Provided that where such arsenic is stated by the purchaser to be required for some purpose for which such admixture would, according to the representation of the purchaser, render it unfit, such arsenic may be sold without such admixture.

Persons registered under “The Medical Act, 1908,” shall not be registered under this Act.

In this Part of this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

No person shall deliver any package containing any poison to any warehouse-owner or carrier, or send or carry or cause to be sent or carried any such package to or from any port or place in New Zealand, unless the true name or description of such poison, with the addition of the word “Poison,” is distinctly marked in easily legible letters of not less than one inch in height on the outside of the package; nor, in the case of delivery to or deposit with any warehouse-owner or carrier of any such package, without also giving notice in writing to him of the name or description of such package, and that it contains poison.

All poison imported by any person into New Zealand, or sent by any person by means of any carrier for delivery at any place in New Zealand, shall be strongly and securely packed; and every person importing or sending poison as aforesaid shall be required to see that the same is packed as required by this section, that is to say,—

How poison to be packed.

Every warehouse-owner and every carrier shall be required to see that all poison deposited with or carried by him, as the case may be, is kept separate and distinct from goods of any kind suitable for food of man or animals, and so as not, in case of breakage or leakage, to intermix with, contaminate, or injuriously affect such goods.

If such warehouseman or carrier has not at the time space for the storage or carriage of any such poison without committing a breach of this Act, he may refuse to accept delivery of or to carry the same, as the case may be.

Every person who commits a breach of any of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act is liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds:

Provided that if any such person shows that he was merely an agent or servant in the importation, carriage, or delivery of any such poison, and had no actual knowledge and had no reason to suspect that it was poison, he shall not be liable to such fine.

When any ship arrives in New Zealand having on board any packages containing poison, the following provisions shall apply:—

Officer to inspect packages before removal.

Goods suitable for food not to be landed if mixed with or contaminated by poison.

If the master or any other person commits or suffers to be committed any breach of this section, he is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

The Minister of Customs may direct such steps as he thinks fit to be taken for the valuation of the goods which, under the last preceding section, are not allowed to be landed; and the amount thereof, with all costs and expenses of such valuation, including the cost of the assistance of any skilled person, shall be a debt jointly and severally due to the Crown by the master and owners of the ship, and may be recovered in accordance with the provisions of “The Crown Suits Act, 1908.”

All such goods shall be forfeited to His Majesty, and may be disposed of in such manner as the said Minister directs, whether any person is liable to be convicted of a breach of this Act or not.

The value of such goods, if and when ascertained and recovered as hereinbefore provided, shall be paid by the Minister to the owner of the goods or other the person lawfully entitled thereto.

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds who knowingly sends or attempts to send by or carries or attempts to carry in any ship, or sends or delivers to any warehouse-owner or carrier, any poison under a false description, or falsely describes the sender or carrier thereof.

Notwithstanding anything in this Part of this Act it shall be lawful to import or send to any port or place in New Zealand sheep-dip in powder, although containing arsenic or compounds of arsenic, if securely packed in wooden boxes.

Subject to the last preceding subsection, the provisions of this Part of this Act shall apply to sheep-dip containing over ten per centum of arsenic or compounds of arsenic.