The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-04-11 00:00:00

POLIOZ.

The Pollee Report stated that an additional room
had been built for the superintendent at Dorchester,
at • coot of £49 17s. 64., and repairs to the stations
omit £97 181. 91. The Committee recommend that
rzo ho expended in completing the Improvements to
the approsehes at Sherborne station, and £l6 for •
porch in front of the door at Portland station, and in.
aide doors in the passages, this being required owing to
the violence of the wind hem the South West, Mr.
Weld, of Lulworth, has fitted up • lock-up at Winfrith,
and £1 Is recommended to be paid him therefor. An
. . . . . . .

additional first-Maas °mutable is rooommended for

Here Regis. The force is eertified to be in a state of
cfrielnugy. A f Mb tat Claiug to the pound was roeoul
mended. The Chief Inspector at Blandford is to
inspect weights and measures there.
The Chief Constableis Report stated that 265 per
eons had been apprehended by the constabalry in the
put quarter, exactly the same number as in the last
quarter, 49 discharged, ra summarily disposed of, and
:39 committed for trial. The annual criminal returns
show a decrease of 98, in the number of persons taken
into custody, LI compared with 1869. Forty-three
persons were convicted during 1870 for having deficient
weights and measures. There had been 1210 outbreak*
of foot-and-month disease, and 103 cattle, 4 sheep, and
124 pip have died. Under the Pedlars' Act a cue
had arisen where • person disqualified by the Act was
summoned for hawking without a certificate, and then
airodneed a letter from the Home Office, in consequence
of which the justices dismissed the case. Instead of
seeking to raise the question by an appeal to the Court,
it had been thought advisable to apply to the Secre-
tary of State for further instructions, the goods which
this person offered for sale [newspapers] apparently
not being included under the saving clauses of the

Act.
A copy of the letter referred to was produced, in
which it is stated " vendors of newipapers la towns
stet villages axe not considered Pedlars."
L,rd PORTMAN : The Secretary of State does not
oonaider them pedlars, but that consideration has never
yet received • judicial decision. We are bound to
interpret the Act as we find it. The Home Secretary
knows the intention of the framer of the Act. If the
ease had Immo before we I should have convicted—it's
perhaps & bit of stupidity on my part (I)—but the reason
I should have done so is bemuse there would of warm
have been an appeal (!) and the question would have
been fully argued before us !) The Superintendent
imuld not tope:klieg-gust the decision of the magistrates.
The man had been convicted of felony, end therefore
could not obtain • pedlar's license: He hawked news.
papers which were his own property; it was not as if
he were sent from a newspaper office with papers.
The words of the Act are " goods, wares, and mei,
chandise." The exempting clause specifically exempts
venous articles but not newspapers and those
three words " goods, '
ods, wares, and merchandise" were by
the interpretation clause anything that could be
bought or sold. Therefore, If he was selling anything
that could be "bought or sold" be was a pedlar.
The Rev. C. W. IltufnaLu said it did not come before
the jostioes that the man had been convicted: and it
did appear that the man was selling newspapers not
on his own socannt, but as the servant of a person who
panhaawl them Iran the skowspapoz pcopdolot.