1894-5. THIRDLY.-For defraying the Excess of Expenditure for the Excesses on Votes, Government Establishments and Public Services of the Northern Northern Territory, Territory beyond the Grants for the year ended the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, there shall be paid the sum of One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fiftytwo Pounds Sixteen Shillings and Nine Pence, the said amount being appropriated as follows, viz. :- Total Excesses on Votes, Northern Territory, 1894-5.. £1,752 16 9 FOURTHLY. Northern Territory The Appropriation Act.-1895. FOURTHLY.-For defraying the charge of the Northern Territory for the year ending the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, there shall be paid out of the Northern Territory Revenues the sum of Seventy-seven Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-four Pounds, the said amount being appropriated as follows, viz.: Railways and Tramways (Palmerston and Pine Creek Line). 19,429 0 0 Miscellaneous .. 3,617 0 24,200 0 Treasurer to pay the orders of Governor, and discharge by receipt of party. 2. The Treasurer shall issue and pay, from time to time, any sum or sums of money for the purposes herein before mentioned, not exceeding in the whole the sums respectively in that behalf hereinbefore specified, to such persons and in such portions as the Governor for the time being shall, by any order or orders in writing signed by him and countersigned by the Chief Secretary, from time to time direct; and the said Treasurer shall, in his accounts, be allowed credit for all sums paid by him in pursuance of such orders accordingly; and the receipts of the persons to whom such sums shall have been so paid shall be to him a full discharge for the sum or sums for which the same receipts shall have been respectively given, and the amounts thereof shall be passed to his credit in account accordingly. In the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, I hereby assent to Adelaide By authority, C. E. BRISTOW, Government Printer, North-terrace. ANNO QUINQUAGESIMO OCTAVO ET QUINQUA- VICTORIÆ REGINÆ. A.D. 1895. No. 646. An Act to amend the Law of Libel. [Assented to, December 20th, 1895.] HEREAS it is desirable to amend the law of libel-Be it Preamble. W therefore Enacted by the Governor of the Province of South Australia, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative 1. This Act may be called "The Law of Libel Amendment Short title. Act, 1895." 2. In this Act, unless inconsistent with the context The word " newspaper means any paper containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, printed for sale and published in South Australia, periodically or in parts or numbers, at intervals not exceeding thirty-one days between the publication of any two such papers, parts, or numbers: The word "proprietor" means and includes as well the sole proprietor of any newspaper as also, in the case of a divided proprietorship, the persons who, as partners or otherwise, represent and are responsible for any share or interest in the newspaper as between themselves and the persons in like manner representing or responsible for the other shares or interests therein, and no other person. 646 3. A Interpretation. Newspaper reports of proceedings in Court privileged. Newspaper reports of proceedings of public meetings and of certain bodies and per sons privileged. Penalties on unfair and inaccurate reports. The Law of Libel Amendment Act.—1895. 3. A fair and accurate report in any newspaper of proceedings publicly heard before any Court exercising judicial authority shall, if published contemporaneously with such proceedings, be privileged: Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise the publication of any blasphemous or indecent matter. 4. A fair and accurate report published in any newspaper of the proceedings of a public meeting, or (except where neither the public nor any newspaper reporter is admitted) of any meeting of a Municipal Corporation or District Council, School Board of Advice, Board of Health, board or local authority formed or constituted under the provisions of any Act of Parliament, or of any committee appointed by any of the above-mentioned bodies, Royal Commissions, Select Committees of either House of Parliament, meetings of shareholders in any bank or incorporated company, and the publication at the request of any Government office or department, Minister of the Crown, or Commissioner of Police, of any notice or report issued by them for the information of the public, shall be privileged unless it shall be proved that such report or publication was published or made maliciously: Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise the publication of any blasphemous or indecent matter: Provided also that the protection intended to be afforded by this section shall not be available as a defence in any proceedings if it shall be proved that the defendant has been requested to insert in the newspaper in which the report or other publication complained of appeared a reasonable letter or statement by way of contradiction or explanation of such report or other publication, and has refused or neglected to insert the same: Provided further, that nothing in this section contained shall be deemed or construed to limit or abridge any privilege now by law existing, or to protect the publication of any matter not of public concern and the publication of which is not for the public benefit. For the purposes of this section, "public meeting" shall mean any meeting bona fide and lawfully held for a lawful purpose, and for the furtherance or discussion of any matter of public concern, whether the admission thereto be general or restricted. 5. If any unfair and inaccurate report of any matter mentioned in sections 3 and 4 shall be published in any newspaper, every person responsible for the publication of such newspaper shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, punishable on complaint of any person aggrieved, and on summary conviction, by a fine not exceeding Ten Pounds, or by imprisonment not exceeding three calendar months: Provided that 1. The punishment shall be by fine only if it shall be proved that the defendant, so soon as practicable after being informed of the unfairness and inaccuracy of the report, has published in the newspaper a correction thereof, giving to the correction at least equal prominence to that which was given to the original report : 11. Any The Law of Libel Amendment Act.-1895. 11. Any person laying any information under this section shall be deemed to have waived all other remedies, both civil and criminal, against the same defendant in respect of the same report. 6. There shall be an appeal to the Local Court of Adelaide of Appeal. Full Jurisdiction only from every conviction for an offence under this Act and from every order dismissing any information, and the proceedings on such appeal shall be conducted in manner appointed by law for appeals to Local Courts. 7. It shall be competent for a Judge or the Court, upon an appli- Consolidation of tion by or on behalf of two or more defendants in actions to the actions. same, or substantially the same libel, brought by one and the same person, to make an order for the consolidation of such actions, so that they shall be tried together, and after such order has been made, and before the trial of said actions, the defendants in any new actions instituted in respect to the same, or substantially the same libel, shall also be entitled to be joined in a common action, upon a joint application being made, by such new defendants and the defendants in the actions already consolidated. tion, matters charged, 8. A Court of summary jurisdiction, upon the hearing of a charge Evidence may be against a proprietor, publisher, or editor, or any person responsible received as to publicafor the publication of a newspaper for a libel therein, may receive &c. evidence as to the publication being for the public benefit, and as to the matters charged in the libel being true, and as to the report being fair and accurate and published without malice, and as to any matter which under this or any other Act or otherwise might be given in evidence by way of defence by the person charged on his trial on indictment; and the Court, if of opinion after hearing such evidence that there is a strong or probable presumption that the jury at the trial would acquit the person charged, may dismiss the case. 9. At the trial of an action for a libel contained in any newspaper, the defendant shall be at liberty to give in evidence in mitigation of damages that the plaintiff has already recovered (or has brought action for) damages, or has received or agreed to receive compensation in respect of a libel or libels to the same purport or effect as the libel for which such action has been brought. Power to defendant evidence in mitigation not be set forth in 10. It shall not be necessary to set out in any indictment or other Obscene matter need judicial proceeding instituted against the publisher of any obscene indictment or other libel the obscene passage, but it shall be sufficient to deposit the judicial proceeding. book, newspaper, or other documents containing the alleged libel with the indictment or other judicial proceeding, together with particulars showing precisely by reference to pages, columns, and lines, in what part of the book, newspaper, or other document the alleged libel is to be found, and such particulars shall be deemed to form part of the record, and all proceedings may be taken thereon as though |