The Short Title of this Act is “The Printers and Newspapers Registration Act, 1908.”

This Act is a consolidation of the enactments mentioned in the First Schedule hereto, and with respect to those enactments the following provisions shall apply:—

Savings.

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

Every person who. has any printing-press or types for printing shall give to the Registrar of the Supreme Court office nearest to the place where such printing-press or types are situated, notice thereof in writing signed by the person having such printing-press or types as aforesaid, and attested by a witness, and such Registrar shall file all such notices and shall give to the person giving the notice a certificate under this Act.

If the printing-press or types are owned by an incorporated company, the notice may be signed and given by the manager, managing director, or chairman of directors thereof on behalf of such company.

Such notice and certificate shall be in the form in the Second Schedule hereto or to the like effect.

Every person who prints any paper or book for publication or dispersion, whether gratuitously or for money, shall print in legible characters on the front of every such paper if it is printed on one side only, and on the first and the last leaf of every paper or book if there is more than one such leaf, his name and the name of the place and (if it is a town) of the street or other part thereof in which his usual place of abode is situate.

If the paper or book is printed by an incorporated company, then in the place where the name and place of abode is required to appear the company shall cause to be printed its name or some known abbreviation thereof, and its registered office or any place where its business is conducted.

Every person who prints any paper for or in the expectation of hire, gain, or profit shall keep one copy at least of every such paper, and shall write or print thereon the name and the place of abode of the person by whom he has been employed to print the same.

If any person sells or offers for sale, or gratuitously delivers or offers so to deliver or leave in any public place or otherwise expose to public view, any printed paper on which the name and place of abode of the printer is not printed in the manner hereinbefore directed, or on which a fictitious or false name or place of abode is printed, any person in whose presence any such act is done may seize and detain such first-mentioned person and take or deliver him to some constable to be taken before a Justice that such Justice may hear and determine whether the person so taken has been guilty of an offence against this Act.

If any Justice, from information on oath, has reason to suspect that any printing-press or types for printing are used or kept for use without notice given and certificate obtained as hereinbefore required, or in any house or place not included in such notice and certificate, such Justice may by his warrant direct any constable with his assistants (if any) to enter in the daytime into any such house or place and search for any printing-press or types for printing.

Every such constable with such assistance as aforesaid may enter into such house or place in the daytime accordingly, and may seize, take, and carry away every printing-press found therein, and all the types and other articles thereto belonging, and all printed papers found in such house or place.

Nothing in this Act shall extend to the impression of any engraving or to the printing by letterpress of the name or the name and address or business or profession of any person and of the articles in which he deals, or to any papers for the sale of land or chattels by auction or otherwise, or to any bank-note, bill of exchange, or promissory note, or to any bond or other security for the payment of money, or to any bill of lading, policy of insurance, letter of attorney, deed or agreement, or to any receipt for money or goods, or to any legal instrument or proceeding in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, or any inferior Court, or to any papers printed by the authority of any Department of the Government.

No person shall print or publish any newspaper unless and until the affidavits have been registered as hereinafter directed.

Where any person desires to publish a newspaper, or where in any registered newspaper any change is at any time made in any of the particulars hereby required to be stated respecting the same, or on a written requisition from the Minister of Internal Affairs, the publisher of such newspaper shall deposit with the Registrar of the Supreme Court office nearest to the place where such newspaper is or is intended to be published an affidavit duly sworn and signed by the proprietors of such newspaper and by the persons intended to be the printer and the publisher thereof respectively.

Such affidavit shall be in the form, or as near thereto as may be, and shall contain the statements specified in the Third Schedule hereto.

In all proceedings, civil or criminal, touching any such news-paper or anything therein contained, such affidavit shall be conclusive evidence as against every person signing the same of the truth of all such matters as in accordance with this Act are therein set forth.

Where any person has made any such affidavit, if he deposits with the Registrar aforesaid an affidavit stating that he is no longer connected with the newspaper in the capacity set forth in such first-mentioned affidavit, he shall not, from the date on which he deposits the same, be taken by reason of such first-mentioned affidavit only to be connected with such newspaper.

Every Registrar shall cause to be registered all affidavits deposited with him under this Act, and such register shall at all reasonable times be open without charge to public inspection.

At the end of every newspaper and of any and every supplement sheet thereof there shall be printed the Christian name and surname, addition, and place of abode of its printer and its publisher, and a true description of the place where the newspaper is printed and published respectively, and the day of the week, month, and year on which the same is published; and the omission of the same or of any part thereof shall be prima facie evidence of wilful default against any such printer or publisher.

In any proceedings, civil or criminal, touching any newspaper or anything therein contained against any person who has made any such affidavit as aforesaid, if any such affidavit or a certified copy thereof is produced in evidence, and if a newspaper is so produced intituled in the same manner as the newspaper mentioned in such affidavit or copy, and in which the names of the printers and publishers and the place of printing are the same as the names of the printers and publishers and the place of printing mentioned in such affidavit or copy, it shall not be necessary to prove that the newspaper to which such proceedings relate was purchased at any house, shop, or office belonging to or occupied by the defendant or his servants, or where he or they severally carry on the business of printing and publishing, or where the same is sold.

Where in proceedings in the Supreme Court the plaintiff claims discovery of the name of any person concerned in the property of or in any newspaper as printer or publisher, or otherwise of any matter relating to the printing or publishing thereof, in order to enable him the more effectually to bring or carry on any action for damages by him alleged to have been sustained by reason of any libellous matter concerning him therein contained, the defendant shall not be permitted to dispute such claim, but shall be compellable to make the discovery thereby required:

Provided that no discovery shall be used for any purpose in any other proceeding than that in and for the purposes of which the discovery is made.

Where an incorporated company desires to publish any newspaper, the provisions of section ten hereof shall be complied with on behalf of such company as proprietor by the manager, managing director, or chairman of directors thereof, and the affidavit in such case may be in the form in the Third Schedule hereto or any suitable modification thereof.

In such case the affidavit prescribed by that section shall be conclusive evidence against such company in the same manner in which by section eleven hereof it is made conclusive evidence against a proprietor signing such affidavit, and an affidavit on behalf of such company under section twelve hereof may be made in like manner, and section fifteen hereof shall apply to any company on whose behalf any such affidavit has been made.

Every person is liable to a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty pounds who keeps or uses any printing-press or types for printing without having delivered the notice and received the certificate hereinbefore required, or who after such delivery and receipt uses any printing-press or any type for printing in any other place than the place expressed in such notice.

Every person who prints any paper or book and omits to print therein his name and place of abode as required by this Act, or who publishes or disperses, or assists in publishing or dispersing, whether gratuitously or for money, any paper or book in which the name and place of abode of the printer thereof is not printed as aforesaid, is liable for every such, copy so published or dispersed by him (but not for more than twenty-five copies in the whole) to a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty pounds.

Every person is liable to a fine of not less than five pounds nor more than twenty pounds who prints any paper or book for hire, gain, or profit and neglects to write or print on a copy thereof the name and place of abode of his employer, or to keep such copy for six months next after the printing thereof, or who refuses or neglects to produce and show the same to any Justice who within such six months requires to see the same.

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds who wilfully sells or delivers out or wilfully prints or publishes any newspaper in respect of which the affidavit required by this Act has not been registered, either originally or as often as this Act requires, or who wilfully prints or publishes any newspaper or supplement thereto whereon the several particulars required by section fourteen hereof are not printed as required by this Act, or whereon there is printed any false name, addition, place, or day, or whereon there is printed any description of the place of printing or publishing such newspaper, differing in any respect from the description of the house or building mentioned in the affidavit required by this Act as the house or building wherein such newspaper is intended to be printed or published.

All fines incurred under this Act may be recovered in a summary manner before two or more Justices in the manner provided by “The Justices of the Peace Act, 1908,” and one moiety of every fine so recovered in respect of any offence against the provisions of this Act relating to the registration of printing presses and types shall be for the use of the person who informs or sues for such fine.