CO129-511-2 Dangerous Drugs Amendment Ordinance- 1928 20-4-1928 - 20-4-1928 — Page 11

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8.

Section 9 of the principal Ordinance is strengthened

by section of this Ordinance in the following ways :-

(a) The possession of the keys of any box, drawer

or other receptacle containing a drug to which

the Ordinance applies is made presumptive

evidence of possession of the drug with guilty

knowledge.

9.

(b) The possession of a baggage receipt or of any

thing intended to serve the purpose of a baggage

receipt is similarly made presumptive evidence

of possession with guilty knowledge.

(c) A new sub-section (3) provides that the

presumptions of section cannot be rebutted by

proof that the accused never had physical

possession of the drug in question.

Section 10 of the principal Ordinance provides that

a certificate sugned by the Superintendent as to the

character, quantity or market value of any drug to which the

Ordinance applies shall be conclusive evidence as to such

character, quantity, or market value. It is difficult to

see how under this section any particular certificate could

be connected with the particular drugs which it was meant to

cover, except of course by calling the Superintendent as a

witness, and one object of the section was to avoid the

necessity of calling him. Section 10 of this Ordinance

endeavours to meet this difficulty by means of a statutory

form of a certificate which can be connected, by means of the

officer who takes the drugs to the Superintendent, with the

drugs actually seized, and which can be connected, by means of

the officer who receives the drugs from the Superintendent,

with the drugs produced in Court. The new section 10

inserted in the principal Ordinance by section 10 of this

Ordinance also provides that any such certificate purporting

to be signed by the Superintendent shall until the contrary