STATUTORY RULES.

1918. No. 105.

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REGULATIONS UNDER THE WAR PRECAUTIONS ACT 1914-1916.

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following regulation under the War Precautions Act 1914-1916 to come into operation forthwith.

Dated this twenty-fourth day of April, 1918.

R. M. FERGUSON,

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

G. F. PEARCE,

Minister of State for Defence.

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Amendment of the War Precautions (Prices) Regulations.

(Statutory Rules 1916, No. 155, as amended by Statutory Rules 1916, Nos. 188 and 286, and Statutory Rules 1917, Nos. 2, 5, and 224, and Statutory Rules. 1918, No. 19.)

After regulation 18 of the War Precautions (Prices) Regulations, the following regulation is inserted:—

Alteration of size of containers or quantity or ingredients of foodstuff or necessary commodity.

“18a. (1) Any person who without the written consent of the Chief Prices Commissioner—

(a) packs or puts up any foodstuff or necessary commodity in a container of a size smaller than the container ordinarily used by him at the commencement of this regulation;

(b) packs or puts up in a container a quantity of a foodstuff or necessary commodity smaller than the quantity ordinarily packed or put up by him in a container of that size at the commencement of this regulation; or

(c) alters the formula or recipe ordinarily used by him at the commencement of this regulation in the manufacture or production of any foodstuff or necessary commodity,

shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation proof that at the commencement of this regulation any person dealing in the ordinary course of trade in any foodstuff or necessary commodity in respect of which any proceedings have been instituted, sold or had for sale—

(a) any foodstuff or necessary commodity purporting to have been packed or put up by the defendant in a container of a certain size, shall be evidence that that was the size of the container ordinarily used by the defendant at the commencement of this regulation in the packing or putting up of the foodstuff or necessary commodity;

(b) any foodstuff or necessary commodity purporting to have been packed or put up by the defendant in a container containing a certain quantity of the foodstuff or necessary commodity shall be evidence that that was the quantity ordinarily packed or put up by the defendant at the commencement of this regulation in a container of that size; and

(c) any foodstuff or necessary commodity (purporting to have been manufactured or produced by the defendant) which appears by analysis or otherwise to have been manufactured or produced in accordance with a certain formula or recipe shall be evidence that that formula or recipe was that ordinarily used by the defendant at the commencement of this regulation in the manufacture or production of the foodstuff or necessary commodity.

(3) It shall be a defence to a prosecution for an offence against the provisions of paragraph (c) of sub-regulation (1) of this regulation if the defendant proves that—

(a) the alteration in the formula or recipe was not made in anticipation or consequence of any action under these regulations in respect of the foodstuff or necessary commodity the formula or recipe of which was altered; and

(b) the foodstuff or necessary commodity manufactured or produced in accordance with the formula or recipe as altered was a superior article to that manufactured or produced prior to the alteration.”

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Printed and Published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer for the State of Victoria.