and to promote vaccination upon any actual or expected outbreak of that disease therein, and may pay any officer appointed by them to prosecute persons charged with offences against this Act, or otherwise to enforce its provisions.

vaccination

XXIX. Every parent or person having the cus- Penalty on tody of a child who shall neglect to take such child parent, etc. neglecting or to cause it to be taken to be vaccinated, or after vac- to procure cination to be inspected, according to the provisions of the child. of this Act, and shall not render a reasonable excuse for his neglect, shall be guilty of an offence, and be liable to be proceeded against summarily, and upon conviction to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings.7

The appointment rests with the guardians, and does not require the sanction or approval of the Poor Law Board, either as to the selection of the officer or as to the amount of his remuneration, unless where the guardians propose to appoint a relieving officer to perform these duties, in which case the consent of the Board must be obtained under Art. 166 of the General Consolidated Order of July 1847, or similar orders. As to the appointment of a registrar of births and deaths to this office, see note on s. 31 post. In many unions, the guardians have termed this officer an "Inspector of Vaccination," or a "Vaccination Inspector," or "Vaccination Officer"; but although some such title may be convenient, it is not in the Act, and perhaps therefore cannot be safely used in prosecutions or other legal proceedings.

As to the mode of charging these expenses in unions, see 28 & 29 Vict. c. 79, s. 1; Appendix B, post, p. 127. See also 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, s. 14.

6 See ss. 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, ante, and ss. 31, 33 and 34, post. With regard to a second conviction, see the decision in Pilcher v. .Stafford, (Appendix B, post, p. 114): which protects the parent from a second penalty under s. 29. Proceedings, however, may be taken to procure the vaccination of the child under s. 31, notwithstanding that a conviction may have been obtained under s. 29.

7 The former Act, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 100, s. 13, expressly directed that all penalties recovered under that Act should be applied in aid of the funds applicable to the relief of the poor of the parish or place where the offence was committed. The present Act contains no such provision; on the contrary, it enacts, in s. 33 (post) that the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, except s. 11, shall apply to all proceedings taken under this Act. The 31st section of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43 provides that if the statute

Penalty on vaccinator and parent

to transmit

XXX. Every public vaccinator, parent or person, as the case shall require,1 who shall neglect to transneglecting mit any certificate required of him by the provisions certificate, of this Act completely filled up and legibly written and persons to the registrar within the time herein specified, and signing false certificates. every public vaccinator who shall refuse to deliver the duplicate to the parent or other person, on request, and every medical practitioner who shall refuse to fill up and sign the certificate of successful vaccination when submitted to him as aforesaid,3 shall be liable to pay upon a summary conviction a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings; and every person who shall wilfully sign a false certificate or duplicate under this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and punishable accordingly.

Justices may

order for the

XXXI. If any registrar,5 or any officer appointed make an by the guardians to enforce the provisions of this vaccination Act,6 shall give information in writing to a justice of the that he has reason to believe that any peace child under the age of fourteen years, being within

of any child under 14

years.

under which any penalty is levied contains no directions for its payment to any person or persons, then the clerk to the justice or justices shall pay the amount to the treasurer of the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough or place, for which the justice or justices shall have acted. It thus appears that the penalties levied under the present Act are not to be applied in aid of the poor rates, but are to be paid over to the county or borough. 1 See ss. 21 and 23, ante.

2 See s. 21, ante.

3 See s. 23, ante.

4 See s. 33, post; and note (7) on s. 29, ante.

5 The registrar being empowered by the Act to proceed under this section on his own authority, it may be a question whether he can also be appointed by the guardians as their "officer" for the same purpose. Such an appointment would not confer upon him any additional powers in this respect; but it would enable the guardians to remunerate him for his trouble, and thus to give him an additional motive for activity. Under s. 28, however, the officer appointed by the guardians is "to prosecute persons charged with offences against this Act," as well as "otherwise to enforce its provisions;" and the registrar, therefore, if appointed by the guardians, would be empowered to prosecute for penalties, as well as to proceed under s. 31. (See the remarks of the Privy Council on this subject, Appendix A, post, p. 74). 6 See s. 28, ante.

the union or parish for which the informant acts, has not been successfully vaccinated, and that he has given notice to the parent or person having the custody of such child to procure its being vaccinated, and that this notice has been disregarded, the justice may summon such parent or person to appear with the child before him at a certain time and place, and upon the appearance, if the justice shall find, after such examination as he shall deem necessary, that the child has not been vaccinated, nor has already had the small pox, he may, if he see fit, make an order under his hand and seal directing such child to be vaccinated within a certain time; and if at the expiration of such time the child shall not have been so Penalty for vaccinated, or shall not be shown to be then unfit to be vaccinated, or to be insusceptible of vaccination, the person upon whom such order shall have been made shall be proceeded against summarily, and unless he can show some reasonable ground for his omission to carry the order into effect, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings :9

disobe

dience.

costs to per

Provided that if the justice shall be of opinion that Proviso for the person is improperly brought before him, and son improshall refuse to make any order for the vaccination of perly sum

7 The Act does not point out upon whom the order is to be made. The order is to direct the child to be vaccinated; but of course it cannot be made upon the child; and as, under the subsequent clause of the enactment, a penalty may be inflicted for disobeying it, the proper construction seems to be, that the order should be made upon the parent or person having the custody of the child, and not upon the registrar or officer of the guardians who may be the informant in the case.

8 It is not here stated before what justices (whether before one, or two or more,) this summary proceeding is to be taken; but having regard to s. 33, post, which adopts the provisions of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, it seems that under s. 12 of the last-named Act one justice may hear and determine the charge; and that he need not necessarily be the same justice by whom the order for the vaccination is made.

9 See notes on s. 29. Although the principle of the decision in Pilcher v. Stafford will prevent the infliction of a second penalty under s. 29, there appears to be nothing to prevent the renewal or repetition of proceedings under s. 31 as often as may be necessary until the vaccination of the child has been effected.

moned.

Penalty upon persons inocu

the child, he may order the informant to pay to such person such sum of money as he shall consider to be a fair compensation for his expenses and loss of time in attending before the justice.1

XXXII. Any person who shall after the passing of this Act produce or attempt to produce in any lating with person by inoculation with variolous matter, or by small-pox. wilful exposure to variolous matter, or to any matter, article, or thing impregnated with variolous matter, or wilfully by any other means whatsoever produce the disease of small-pox in any person, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable to be proceeded against summarily, and upon conviction to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding one month.

11 & 12 Vict.

c. 43, except

sect. 11, sect. 59 of

c. 101, and

sect. 9 of

28 & 29 Vict. c. 79, to apply to

these proceedings.

XXXIII. The statute of the eleventh and twelfth Victoria, chapter forty-three, except section eleven,3 shall apply to all proceedings to be taken under this Act; and the justices for the county, city, borough, or other place where the offence shall have been committed, shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the complaint, and where a union or parish shall be comprised in several jurisdictions the complaint as to any matter arising in such union or parish may be heard and determined in any one of such jurisdictions; and all prosecutions undertaken by the guardians or their officers or any registrar under this Act shall be deemed to be within the operation of the seventh and eighth Victoria, chapter one hundred and one, section fifty-nine, and the Union Chargeability Act of 1865, section nine.4

This liability will doubtless induce the informant to be very circumspect in his proceeding under this section.

2 Compare 3 & 4 Vict. c. 29, s. 8; Appendix B, post, p. 102, and note thereon. See also the Sanitary Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90), ss. 25, 26, 38 and 39.

3 The section thus excepted (s. 11) limits the period within which proceedings may be adopted to six calendar months from the time when the matter of the complaint or information arose, and consequently that limitation will not apply to proceedings under the present Act. See Jervis's Acts, by Glen, 3rd edition, 1867.

As to the application of the penalties, however, see note (7) s. 29, ante, p. 41.

to be proved

fence.

XXXIV. In any prosecution for neglect to pro- Notice not cure the vaccination of a child, it shall not be neces- by prosecusary in support thereof to prove that the defendant tors. had received notice from the registrar or any other officer of the requirements of the law in this respect; but if the defendant produce any such certificate as Certificates herein before described, or the register of vaccinations to be dekept by the registrar as hereinbefore provided, in which the certificate of successful vaccination of such child shall be duly entered,5 the same shall be a sufficient defence for him, except in regard to the certificate marked B, when the time specified therein for the postponement of the vaccination shall have expired before the time when the information shall have been laid. 6

terms.

XXXV. The word "parent " shall include the Interpretafather and mother of a legitimate child and the tion of mother of an illegitimate child; "medical practitioner" shall mean a registered medical practitioner; and the several words herein contained shall be construed, except where any inconsistency would ensue from such construction, in the same manner as in the several Acts for the amendment of the law for the relief of the poor.

XXXVI. The seventh section of the Public Health Act, 1858, shall apply to all the proceedings

5 There appears to be some inaccuracy in the language of this clause. The certificates of successful vaccination (form D) are to be sent to the registrar, either by the public vaccinator under s. 21, or by the parent or other person under s 23; and they are to be registered by him under s. 24. It is not distinctly enacted that they are to be preserved by him, but apparently this is intended; and if so, both the certificates and the register of vaccinations will be in the possession of the registrar, and not of the defendant. It is difficult to understand, therefore, how the defendant himself can produce them, though probably he can readily procure their production by the registrar, or compel it by subpœna duces tecum. If, however, he has in his own possession a duplicate certificate, the production of such duplicate will doubtless be sufficient. With reference to the duplicate, see ss. 21 and 23, ante, and the notes thereon. 6 With regard to the certificate marked B, see note on s. 18, ante, p. 35.

Sect. 7 of

21 & 22 Vict. c. 97,to apply