State Electricity Commission (No. 3104).-This Act amends the Principal Act of 1918 (No. 2996) in various particulars. Amongst other things it provides for a Chairman of the Commission who shall give his whole time to the work of the Commission and receive a remuneration of £3,000 a year, and enacts" that the first person to be so appointed shall (if he is willing to accept the office) be Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash, G.C.M.G., K.C.B." (Sir John Monash is a distinguished and experienced engineer). Provision is also made for establishing a township at Morwell, the principal seat of the Commission's operations, and the preparation of plans for this purpose. The scheme extends to laying out the township, acquiring and erecting houses and maintaining them in repair, and laying out and beautifying any land vested in or controlled by the Commission or otherwise making it suitable for recreation purposes or for any public purpose (s. II).

Wheat Marketing and Transportation (No. 3076).-This is an Act which in relation to the wheat harvest of 1920-21 makes similar provision for the marketing and transportation of the crop through a "Government pool" as has been made in the other years following the outbreak of the War. The scheme involves the co-operation of the several State Governments and provides also for the possibility of the Commonwealth becoming a party. The nature of these schemes has already been considered in previous reviews of legislation.

State Savings Bank (No. 3098).-This Act authorizes the State Savings Bank Commissioners, which have for long made advances to settlers under the Crédit Foncier system, to make advances to companies for the purposes of various undertakings in connection with industries in country districts. The Primary Products Advances Act, 1919, having sanctioned Government advances to companies for various purposes in connection with undertakings as defined under that Act, the present Act extends the undertakings which may be assisted to "any factory, work-room, store, or other establishment for the purpose of manufacturing, producing, preparing, improving, preserving, freezing, packing, or storing any commodities for sale which is situated outside the metropolis and is not included within the interpretation of undertaking in s. 2 of the Primary Products Advances Act, 1919, or of 'fruit works' in s. 2 of the Fruit Act, 1917." The scheme of advances and repayment follows that of Acts Nos. 3038 and 3068.

Fallowing Advances (No. 3052).-To enable cultivators who would not, without assistance, be able to fallow their land between July and November 1920, the Government may make advances "by way of loan of such quantity of fodder as the Minister thinks fit." The advance may be in kind or by order to some person to supply to the cultivator the value mentioned in the order. "Fallowing" is defined as "the ploughing of land during the period from July to November 1920 as a first preparation for sowing such land with wheat or oats during the period from March to July 1921, and the treatment of such land by harrowing, cultivating, or otherwise to the extent necessary to enable it to be thoroughly prepared for the growing of a wheat crop or oat crop"; and " fodder" means food for horses employed in fallowing. Advances are secured by mortgage over the farm or a licence lien or lien on the improvements thereon, and also if the Department administering the Act thinks fit a preferable lien under Part VII of the Instruments Act, 1915, on the crop of the next ensuing harvest. If the land or improvements are already encumbered,

the consent of the encumbrancer is ordinarily necessary to the advance, which then takes precedence of the encumbrance. But where the consent of the encumbrancer is not obtainable, the Department may advance on the security of a preferable lien over the crop of the next ensuing harvest. By s. 10, notwithstanding anything in any Act, mortgage, lease, or agreement, no person unless he first pays to the Department the total amount due by the cultivator, may seize or distrain any crop for the period during which the preferable lien given by this Act is in force, or during the same period take any proceedings by way of ejectment against the cultivator.

Fruit (No. 3069).-This Act amends the Fruit Acts, 1915 and 1917. in respect to advances by the Government Trusts appointed for Cool Stores Areas.

Primary Products Advances Act (No. 3068).-This Act amends the Act of 1919 so far as the same relates to an application for loans, and to the repayment of loans made by the Government to companies formed for such undertakings as the establishment and carrying on of abattoirs and freezing works, cool storage for fish, factories for the manufacture of canned fruit, dried fruit, or jam, flax mills, tobacco curing sheds, and fruit works [see Act No. 3038 (of 1919) s. 2].

Farm Produce Agents (No. 3082).-No person is to carry on the business of a farm produce agent unless licensed. Licences are obtained by application to a Court of petty sessions which has to be satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person. The licence has to be renewed annually and there is an annual licence fee of twenty shillings. Licences may be cancelled for any offence under the Act or if for any other reason the Court considers that the licensee is unfit; and a licence is to be deemed to be ipso facto cancelled if the agent is convicted of an indictable offence. Among offences under the Act are: (1) purchase by the agent of any commodity entrusted to him for sale, without disclosing that he is the purchaser penalty £50 with an account of all profits; (2) failure to supply within ten days an account sales note in the form prescribed by the Act, or making a false return; (3) failure to apply the proceeds of sale as prescribed by the Act, including failure to pay the balance due into a trust account at a bank.

Land (No. 3105).-This Act contains a number of miscellaneous provisions amending the Land Act, 1915 (No. 2676), and an amending Act (No. 2770). There are several provisions applicable to the case of soldiers. S. 3 allows postponement for three years of payments in respect of any selection purchase allotment disposed of to a discharged soldier under a residential lease, subject to the fulfilment of covenants and to the land being satisfactorily weeded. S. 12 provides that grazing licences may be granted to returned soldiers for fourteen years instead of seven years as in other cases; and s. 13 permits a soldier holding under such a grazing licence to select a selection purchase allotment. The Land Act, 1915 (No. 2770), s. 8, having provided for a suspension of covenants or conditions in case of lessees or licensees on naval or military service during the war, s. 20 of the present Act permits waiver of compliance with a covenant or condition as to residence or occupation in the case of a licensee or lessee who was unable to comply with such condition or covenant owing to the absence of a relative on war service. By s. 21 the Governor in Council may in the case of purchasers of Crown land who were absent on war service forgo claims to interest in respect of the payments

due under such purchase accruing while such purchaser was engaged on war service.

Among other provisions of the Act is one authorizing the Government to declare areas of Crown land as proper subjects for improvement before alienation or disposition, and thereupon to provide roads and bridges and drainage in such area. In every such area the Closer Settlement Board may, either before the land has been taken up or afterwards, clear, drain, fence, or otherwise improve such land (s. 4). Expenses incurred under this section are to be deemed a "special advance" to the settler; and the work may by arrangement be carried out by the settler under advances of money made to him by the Board.

Country Roads (No. 3057).-This Act authorizes the Treasurer to raise for the Country Roads Board an additional £250,000 for each of the two financial years commencing respectively July 1, 1920, and July 1, 1921—the former grant of £2,000,000 having been exhausted. Inasmuch as municipalities are by law required to provide half the maintenance money and half the construction money towards the works of the Board, and that in certain cases municipalities have not paid such moiety, this Act empowers the Treasurer to deduct from moneys due to the defaulting municipalities out of Consolidated Revenue or on account of any fees, fines, penalties, etc., such moiety and with interest at the rate of £6 per cent. per annum. One other provision relates to the obtaining of stone, gravel, and other road-making material. Under the Principal Act the Board had power to enter private property for the purpose of securing material for making or maintaining roads; but a difficulty was found where such material was not adjacent to the roads, and the present Act gives power to the Board to convey such road material over intervening property.

Factories and Shops (No. 3093).—This Act makes easier the appointment of Wages Boards. Originally such Boards were created in four of the most sweated trades, and were created under the authority of Statute. Thereafter Parliament passed an Act under which Wages Boards could be created for other trades on the adoption of resolutions in both Houses of Parliament, and that has been the procedure in operation until the passing of this present Act. The defect in that procedure was that Wages Boards could only be created while Parliament was in session, and when in any trade trouble suddenly arose, the remedy of a Wages Board required this legislative sanction. The present Act enables the Governor in Council to appoint Wages Boards without resolutions of both Houses of Parliament. Under the previous procedure whenever it had been found necessary to extend or otherwise amend the powers of a Wages Board an amending resolution of both Houses of Parliament was required; under the present Act the Governor in Council is now entrusted with that power.

Factories and Shops (No. 2) (Act No. 3112) fixes the hours for the closing of shops within the Metropolitan District for the sale of fresh uncooked meat, and enacts (1) that such shops shall be closed and kept closed in every week:

(1) On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday until the hour of half-past seven o'clock in the morning;

On Saturday until the hour of six o'clock in the morning.

(2) That all such shops shall be closed in every week:

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from the hour of five o'clock in the evening;

On Friday from the hour of six o'clock in the evening;

On Saturday from the hour of half-past twelve o'clock in the afternoon; but may be kept open until eight o'clock in the evening on the day immediately preceding a public holiday when such shops are closed for the whole of such public holiday.

Second-hand Dealers (No. 3064).-This Act modifies the requirements of the Principal Act when a licence is sought to be renewed and not obtained for the first time. By the Principal Act a person who desired a licence to trade as a second-hand dealer was required to give a written notice of his intention to apply therefor, and to lodge with the police a certificate of five householders residing in the district where the applicant proposed to carry on his business, and this notice and certificate had to be lodged eighteen days at least before the application was to be made. One who required a renewal of a licence had to repeat this procedure, and the present Act dispenses with that, and the licensee now has to apply for renewal at the Court of petty sessions nearest to his place of business not less than fourteen days before the expiry of his licence, and give notice also not less than fourteen days to the police; and if the Court of petty sessions is satisfied that the licensee has committed no breach of the Acts and is a fit and proper person to continue to hold the licence, it may renew the licence for a further period of twelve months.

The Principal Act also required a dealer who bought any second-hand article to hold it for four days, and an exception is made by the present Act to this in the case of goods bought by the dealer at public auction.

Housing and Reclamation (No. 3088). This is an important Act "relating to the providing of dwellings for persons of small means and for the reclamation of and improvement of insanitary, low-lying, or overcrowded areas." Under Part I the Commissioners of Savings Banks are empowered to acquire dwelling-houses or to acquire land and to erect dwelling houses thereon at a total cost in the case of each such dwelling of not exceeding £800, for the purpose of providing dwelling-houses for" eligible persons," i.e. persons not the owner of a dwelling-house and not in receipt of an income of more than £400 a year (s. 2). The price to purchaser is not to exceed the capital cost to the Commissioners. The purchaser may be admitted to occupation as a weekly tenant, paying rent at such amount as has been fixed. The rent paid is to be appropriated by the Commissioners between interest on the amount of capital cost outstanding from time to time and the payment of the capital cost (s. 8). The period for the payment of the capital cost by any purchaser is not to exceed twenty-eight years. The title to the property remains in the Commissioners until at least 15 per cent. of the purchase-money has been paid, when the purchaser may obtain a transfer subject to mortgage (s. 8). Discretionary powers as to payments are given to the Commissioners to meet cases of hardship. A purchaser from the Commissioners may not without their permission let, sublet, or mortgage the premises (s. 14) so long as any part of the purchase-money is unpaid; and during the same time, no transfer of the property shall have effect unless it (a) arises through the question of any law relating to insolvency; (b) is made to a devisee by a person acting in the capacity of executor or administrator to a purchaser or borrower; (c) is made with the consent in writing of the Commissioners (s. 16).

Part II of the Act deals with housing and reclamation schemes. Municipalities are empowered to enter upon housing and reclamation

schemes with the assent of the Governor in Council. The local authority prepares a general plan, of which public notice is to be given, and objectors may petition the Governor in Council against its adoption, or for its amendment. Under any such scheme when approved land may be taken compulsorily, buildings may be demolished, roads closed or opened out, and lands laid out for gardens and recreation. The cost of dwellings to be erected is not to exceed (together with the land) a capital cost of £800, and such houses are to be available only for the "eligible persons above described, and are to be disposed of on terms similar to those applicable to dwellings provided by the Savings Bank Commissioners. For the purposes of any housing scheme a municipality may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, advance any sum not exceeding £100,000, or in the case of the city of Melbourne £300,000, and may increase the general rate to an extent not exceeding 6d. in the pound notwithstanding any statutory limit to such rate. The municipality must in each year prepare a separate balance sheet and statement of accounts showing the operation of the scheme.

"Reclamation schemes" relate to the reclamation and improvement of any insanitary or low-lying or over-crowded area in the municipal district, or the improvement of any particular area in the municipal district where any land abuts upon any street or way less than 30 feet wide" (s. 41). For such schemes a municipality may, with the consent of the Governor in Council, borrow a sum not exceeding £50,000 (in the case of Melbourne £300,000). In connection with any reclamation scheme, it may impose a betterment charge upon all lands within the "betterment area "in respect of or in consideration of any substantial and permanent increase in value which it is clearly shown has been derived from the reclamation effected under the betterment scheme (s. 53). The charge is one-half of the enhanced value, after making all proper deductions. The provisions of the Act on this subject of betterment, including the mode of determining the enhanced value, are in the main adopted from 58 and 59 Vict., c. cxxx-London County Council (Tower Bridge Southern Approach) Act.

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Rating on Unimproved Values (No. 3060).-This Act repeals the Act of 1919 (No. 3025), and re-enacting it in part contains additional provisions as to the measures of valuation to be taken by municipalities in cases where the unimproved capital value has been adopted as the basis of rating.

Divorce (Insanity) (No. 3049).-This Act adds to the existing grounds for a divorce or a judicial separation the new ground that (1) the respondent is a lunatic or person of unsound mind who has been before or after the commencement of the Act confined in an asylum, etc., for five years out of six in the aggregate before the filing of the petition, and (2) is unlikely to recover. A copy of any petition for a divorce or a judicial separation on this ground must be served on the Master in Lunacy, sealed with the seal of the Court, and a copy of the citation also served on him.

Trusts (No. 3109).—This Act amends the law relating to the banking accounts of trustees so as to provide that where there are two or more trustees they may direct the bank to honour cheques or other negotiable instruments signed by one of the trustees, and the banker recognizing the authority of the trustees in that way is not to be deemed privy to a breach of trust. S. 3 is as follows: