CO129-508-11 Copies of Ordinances and amendments with relating correspondence 17-12-1927 - 17-7-1928 — Page 53

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Presumptions are provided in sub-section (9), (10)

(a)

and (11).

Sub-section (11) is made general with

a view ic libel actions.

20. Section 12 of Ordinance No. 4 of 1886 applied to every

"newspaper, peper, or bock intended to be distributed or made public". No doubt the phrase "intended to be distributed

co made public" was meant to apply to newspapers and papers

as well as to books in spite of the punctuation.

objection to this phrase was the doubt as to the meaning of

the word "distributed". Obviously, a document would not be

The

printed at all unless the copies were intended to be dis-

-tributed to some persons. That being so, the word might

have had the effect of excluding from the section a document

issued by a society to its members. This, however, is one

of the classes which it is most desirable to bring under the

section. The new section, therefore, attacks the problem

in a different way. It begins by a general application to

every printed document, and in sub-section (E) it excepts

documents "solely intended and solely used for a bona fide

and ordinary commercial or professional or social purpo 38,

provided that such document as printed contains no seditious

or political matter whatacever". In crier to meet the point

that a document issued by a society to its members would be

a document used for a social purpose, the section goes on to

provide that "a document used for the purposes of a society,

club or other organization shall not be deemed to be used

for a social purpose". It will be noticed that in the case

of proceedings before a magistrate at least the scheme of a

general statement followed by an exception will have the

effect, under section 28 of the Magistrates Ordinance, of

throwing on the defendant the onus of proving the exception.

The term "printed document" is defined in section 2.

21.