PUBLIC this designation are comprehended all goods and chattels under the care, superintendence, or control of a public depart ment, the latter term including the department of a Secretary of State or the Admiralty or any public office. By the Public Stores Act, 1875, certain marks are prescribed in order to denote his Majesty's property in stores marked therewith. No one without lawful authority (proof of which authority lies on the party accused) may apply any of these marks on such stores under pain of conviction as a misdemeanant. The following are the prescribed Obliteration, 4v.—Any one who, in order to conceal his Majesty's pro perty in any stores, takes out, destroys or obliterates the mark or any part of it, will be guilty of a felony, and liLle to penal servitude. A constable has power to search vehicles, vessels, and persons for stores which he believes to have been unlawfully obtained and concealed. Unlawful possession.—If any person is char-red before the magistrates with conveying or with having in his possession or Ceeping any stores reasonably suspected of being stolen or unlaw fully obtained, and does not give a satisfactory account how he came by them, he will be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and be liable to imprisonment. Dealers, 4.c.—It may be that stores are found in the possession or keeping of a dealer in marine stores or in old metals, or a pawnbroker. Under such circumstances the person concerned can be taken before the magistrates, and will be fined ce5, if the Court sees reasonable grounds fbr believing the stores found to have been his Majesty's property, and the accused cannot satis factorily show that he came by them lawfully. For the purposes of regis tration a conviction under this Act of an old metal dealer is equivalent to a conviction under the Old Metal Dealers Act, 1861. Criminal possession explained.—For the purposes of the Public Stores Act, stores are deemed to be in the possession or keeping of any person if he knowingly has them in the actual possession or keeping of any other person, or in any house, building, lodging, apartment, field, or place, open or enclosed, whether occu pied by himself or not, and whether the same are so had for his own use or benefit or for the use or benefit of another.
is the name given to a packet containing average samples of gold or silver coins to be tested, at the Goldsmiths' Hall, by a jury of goldsmiths. This test is called the Trial of the Pyx. It is held annually, and the verdict is signed by each member of the jury and also by the King's Remembrancer. The packets of coins are produced to the jury by the officers of the Royal Mint, and the jury select a small number of each class of coin therefrom. The manner in which gold coins are dealt with is representative of the general procedure. The jury first weigh each of the selected coins separately, in order to ascertain that they are within the remedy as to weight prescribed in the first schedule to the Coinage Act, 1870, as amended by the Coinage Act, 1901. They then melt the coins so selected and weighed into an ingot, and assay the ingot, comparing it with the standard gold trial plate of the Board of Trade, and by this means they are enabled to ascertain whether the metal is within the remedy as to fineness prescribed by the Act of 1870. Having thus tested the selected samples, the jury proceed to weigh the residue of the coins in bulk, and then to weigh and assay separately another selection—this time from the residue.
the arrival of a ship from a foreign port the customs officer who visits the ship is required, as part of his regular duty, to ascertain, as far as possible, whether the ship is infected with cholera, yellow fever, or the plague. A ship is considered to be so infected if there is, or has been during the voyage, or during her stay in the port of de parture or in a port in the course of her voyage, any case of these diseases. Should the customs officer have any reason to suspect that the ship is infected, or has conic from an infected place, he calls upon the master or surgeon to make a written declaration as to the presence or absence of any cases of infection. Then, if he still has reason to suspect infection, he has power to detain the ship and order the niaster forthwith to moor or anchor
her. Whilst the ship is so detained, no person (other than the customs officer or any one acting in execution of the quarantine regulations) is per mitted to leave her. A customs officer who so detains a ship must forthwith give notice of the detention, and of the cause, to the sanitary authority of the place where the ship is lying. The detention 18 ill cease as soon as the ship has been visited and examined by the medical officer of health and declared to be free from infection; but if the examination is not commenced within twelve hours after the ship has been moored or anchored, the ship is entitled to release from her detention. If the ship is found to be infected it will be moored or anchored in a place fixed for that purpose by the sanitary authority, and must remain there, without any person leaving her, until released by the authority. The master of an infected ship must, when within three miles of the coast, hoist a large flag of yellow and black, borne quarterly, at the masthead or where it can be best seen. And this flag is required to be kept displayed during the whole of the time between sunrise and sunset, and no person (other than a customs officer or a person acting in execution of quarantine duties) can leave the ship except by permission of the customs officer or the medical officer of health. A penalty of ,e100 is incurred by any one who wilfully neglects or refuses to obey or carry out, or obstructs the execution of, any lawful regulation relating to quarantine. There is nothing in the quarantine regulations which renders liable to detention, disinfection, or destruction, any article forming part of a mail (other than a parcel mail) conveyed under the authority of the Postmaster General, or of the postal administration of a foreign government; or which can prejudicially affect the delivery in due course of any such mail (other than a parcel mail).
the purposes of the Quarry (Fencing) Act, 1887, the term quarry is defined as including " every pit or opening made for the purpose of getting stone, slates, lime, chalk, clay, gravel, or sand, but not any natural opening." The Act, which does not extend to Scotland and Ireland, makes specific provision for the fencing of certain quarries. It provides that where any quarry dangerous to the public is in open or unenclosed land, within fifty yards of a highway or place of public resort dedicated to the public, and is not separated therefrom by a secure and sufficient fence, it shall be kept reasonp.bly fenced for the prevention of accidents. Unless it is so kept it will be deemed to be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily under the Public Health Act, 1875. The general Regulation of Quarries is the subject of the Quarries Act, 1894. This Act applies to "every place (not being a mine) in which persons work in getting slate, stone, coprolites, or other minerals, and any part of which is more than twenty feet deep." In the first place the Act applies to such quarries, in like manner as they apply in the case of mines, certain specified pro visions of the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts. These provisions are sections 9, 11, 15 to 18, 24 to 40, 42 and 43 of the Mines Act of 1872, and section 1, except the proviso, of the Act of 1875. But the word "explosive" should be substituted for the word " powder" in section 11 of the Act of 1872. In section 41 of that Act only the definitions of " owner " and " agent," and the definition of " court of summary jurisdiction," so far as it relates to Scotland, apply to quarries. Inspectors under the Metalliferous Mines Acts are constituted inspectors of quarries ; and it is stipulated that in the appointment of such inspectors in Wales and Monmouthshire, among candidates equally qualified, those who have a knowledge of the Welsh language shall be preferred. The Factory Act applies to quarries with certain modifications. Thus, inspectors of mines exercise the powers of inspectors under the Factory Act ; nothing in the Factory Act is to prevent the employment in a quarry, as above defined, of young persons in three shifts for not more than eight hours each. See MINES.