18 (1) Where a person is charged with committing an offence 4 Edw. 7, c. 15. under this Act or any of the offences mentioned in the First Mode of schedule to this Act in respect of two or more children, the same charging information or summons may charge the offence in respect of all or any of them but the person charged shall not be liable to a separate time. penalty for each child unless upon separate informations. (2) The same information or summons may also charge any person as having the custody, charge, or care, alternatively or together, and may charge him with the offences of assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment, or exposure, together or separately, and may charge him with committing all or any of these offences in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health, alternatively or together, but when those offences are charged together the person charged shall not be liable to a separate penalty for each. (3) A person shall not be summarily convicted of an offence under this Act or of an offence mentioned in the First schedule to this Act unless the offence was wholly or partly committed within six months before the information was laid; but, subject as aforesaid, evidence may be taken of acts constituting, or contributing to constitute, the offence, and committed at any previous time. (4) Where an offence under this Act or any offence mentioned in the First schedule to this Act charged against any person is a continuous offence, it shall not be necessary to specify in the information, summons, or indictment, the date of the acts constituting the offence. cffences and limitation of summary conviction to Quarter 19 When, in pursuance of this Act, any person is convicted by Appeal from a Court of Summary Jurisdiction of an offence, and such person did not plead guilty or admit the truth of the information, or when in the case of any application under sections six, seven, or eight of Sessions. this Act, other than an application to a judge or Court of Assize, any party thereto thinks himself aggrieved by any order or decision of the Court, he may appeal against such a conviction, or order, or decision, in England and Ireland to a Court of Quarter Sessions, and in Scotland to the High Court of Justiciary, in manner provided by the Summary Prosecutions Appeal (Scotland) Act, 1875, 38 & 39 Vict. or any Act amending the same. c. 62. 20 (1) Where a misdemeanor under this Act is tried on Expenses of indictment, the expenses of the prosecution shall be defrayed in prosecution. like manner as in the case of a felony. (2) This section shall not apply to Scotland. 21 A board of guardians, or in Scotland the parish council Guardians may of any parish or combination, may, out of the funds under their pay costs of control, pay the reasonable costs and expenses of any proceedings proceedings. which they have directed to be taken under this Act in regard to 4 Edw. 7, c. 15. the assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment, or exposure of any child, and, in the case of a union, shall charge such costs and expenses to the common fund. Provision as to parents and as to meaning of custody, charge, or care. Evidence of wages of defendant. Vexatious Supplemental. 22 Every byelaw under this Act shall be made by the same authority and confirmed in the same way as byelaws under the Employment of Children Act, 1903 (h), or in Scotland as byelaws under section two of the said Act. 23 (1) The provisions of this Act relating to the parent of a child shall apply to the step-parent of the child and to any person cohabiting with the parent of the child, and the expression "parent" when used in relation to a child includes guardian and every person who is by law liable to maintain the child. (2) This Act shall apply in the case of a parent who being without means to maintain a child fails to provide for its maintenance under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, in like manner as if the parent had otherwise neglected the child. (3) For the purposes of this Act Any person who is a parent of a child shall be presumed to have the custody of the child; and Any person to whose charge a child is committed by its parent shall be presumed to have charge of the child; and Any other person having actual possession or control of a child shall be presumed to have the care of the child. 24 In any proceedings under this Act a copy of an entry in the wages book of any employer of labour, or, if no wayes book be kept, a written statement signed by such employer, or by his foreman, shall be prima facie evidence that the wages therein entered, or stated as having been paid to any person, have in fact been so paid. Provided that such copy or statement has been signed by such employer, or his foreman, and that the signature of such employer, or foreman, has been witnessed by the person producing the said copy or statement. 25 Every misdemeanor under this Act shall in England and Ireland be deemed to be an offence within, and subject to, the provisions Act to apply. of the Vexatious Indictments Act, 1859, and any Act amending the 22 & 23 Vict. c. 17. Extension of section 10 of same. 26 Section ten of the Poor Law Act, 1879, shall be amended so as to include in it as one of the associations or societies to which a board 42 & 43 Vict. of guardians may, with the consent of the Local Government board, subscribe, any association or society for the prevention of cruelty to children. c. 54. (h) 3 Edw. 7, c. 45, post, p. 113. 27 The limit of time mentioned in the second proviso of section five of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, shall be six months after the commission of the offence. 28 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to take away or affect the right of any parent, teacher, or other person having the lawful control or charge of a child to administer punishment to such child. 29 In this Act unless the context otherwise requires— The expression "chief officer of police" means— in the City of London and the liberties thereof, the Commissioner of City Police; in the Metropolitan Police District, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis; elsewhere in England, the chief constable, or head constable or other officer, by whatever name called, having the chief local command of the police in the police district in reference to which such expression occurs: The expression "street" includes any highway or other public place, whether a thoroughfare or not: The expression "place of safety" includes any place certified by the local authority under this Act for the purposes of this Act, and also includes any workhouse or police station or any hospital surgery, or place of the like kind: The expression "Industrial School Acts" means as regards England and Scotland the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, and the Acts amending the same. 4 Edw. 7, c. 15. Extension of time for pro ceedings. 48 & 49 Vict. c. 69. Right of parent, &c., to administer punishment. 29 & 30 Vict. c. 118. 30 In the application of this Act to Scotland, unless the context Application of otherwise requires— The Secretary for Scotland shall be substituted for a Secretary of The expression "local authority" means the local authority for The expression "chief officer of police" means the chief constable, or head constable, superintendent or inspector, or other officer, by whatever name called, having the chief local command of the police in the police district in reference to which such expression occurs: The expression "Court of Summary Jurisdiction," the expression "Petty Sessional Court" and the expression "justice of the peace" mean the sheriff or sheriff substitute: Act to 4 Edw. 7, c. 15. Application of Act to Ireland. Short title and repeal. The expression "misdemeanor " means crime and offence: 66 The expression "enter into a recognizance with or without sureties" means grant a bond of caution: The expression "workhouse" means poor house. 31 In the application of this Act to Ireland, unless the context otherwise requires— The Chief Secretary shall be substituted for a Secretary of State: The expression "local authority" means any local authority as defined by the Employment of Children Act, 1903. 32 Expenses incurred by a local authority under this Act shall be defrayed in like manner as expenses incurred under the Employment of Children Act, 1903. 33 (1) This Act may be cited as the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904. (2) The enactments mentioned in the second schedule to this Act shall be repealed from the date of the commencement of this Act to the extent specified in the third column to that schedule. (3) This Act shall come into operation on the first day of October one thousand nine hundred and four. SCHEDULES. FIRST SCHEDULE. Any offence under sections 27, 55 or 56 of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, and any offence against a child under the age of sixteen years under sections 5, 42, 43, 52 or 62 of that Act, or section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885. Any offence under the Dangerous Performances Acts, 1879 and 1897. Any other offence involving bodily injury to a child under the age of sixteen years. II. BABY FARMING. INFANT LIFE PROTECTION ACT, 1897. 60 & 61 VICT. CH. 57. 1 THIS Act may be cited as the Infant Life Protection Act, Short title. 1897 (a). 2 (1) Any person retaining or receiving for hire or reward in that behalf more than one infant under the age of five years (b) for the purpose of nursing or maintaining such infants apart from their parents for a longer period than forty-eight hours (c) shall within the said forty-eight hours (c) give notice (d) thereof to the loca authority (e). (2) Such notice shall truly state the name, age, and sex of such infants, the name of the person receiving the infants, and the dwelling within which such infants are being kept, and the name and address of the person or persons from whom the infants have been received. (3) If any such infant is removed from the care of the person who has received the infant for the purpose aforesaid, such person shall forthwith give to the local authority notice of the removal, and of the name and address of the person to whose care the infant has been transferred. (4) If any person who has retained or received any infant as aforesaid omits to give the said notices, or any of them, or knowingly or wilfully (ƒ) makes or causes or procures (g) any other person to make any false statement in any such notice, he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act (h). Persons the purpose of |