apply to any electric line or work of the Postmaster-General, or to any other electric line or work used or to be used solely for telegraphic purposes, except by way of protection, as in the section provided.

Section 70 of the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act, 1899, usually incorporated in special Acts relating to electricity, provides that the Board of Trade regulations for the time being in force shall, within one month after they have come into force, as made or last altered, be printed at the expense of the undertakers, and a true copy thereof, certified by or on behalf of the undertakers, shall be kept by the undertakers at their principal office within the area of supply, and supplied to any person demanding them at a price not exceeding sixpence for each copy, and, where the local authority are not themselves the undertakers, a like copy shall also be forthwith served upon the local authority. A penalty is provided for default in complying with this obligation.

Under the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1919, the powers of the Board of Trade in matters relating to electricity have been transferred to the Minister of Transport, and he is empowered to exercise his powers with regard to electricity through a body of Electricity Commissioners.

Interpretation Act, 1889.-In the case of an Act passed after 1889, section 32 (3) of the Interpretation Act, 1889, provides that a power conferred by such Act to make any rules, regulations, or by-laws, shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a power, exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like consent and conditions, if any, to rescind, revoke, amend, or vary the rules, regulations, or by-laws. As regards the varying of by-laws, it may be pointed out that, if subsequent bylaws are inconsistent with former ones, the former ones are impliedly overruled to the extent of the inconsistency. If, however, although aimed at the same mischief, the subsequent by-laws are not inconsistent with the former ones, the former ones remain valid.

Validity and Invalidity of By-laws. Having thus dealt with the statutory provisions affecting the making of

by-laws, we must now consider the legal principles which are held to govern the determination of their validity or invalidity, when made.

General Conditions of Validity.-To be valid, a bylaw must conform to the following conditions:—it must be within the powers conferred upon the authority by whom it is made; it must be certain in its terms; it must not be repugnant to the general law; it must be reasonable. CONFORMITY WITH BY-LAW-MAKING POWER.-The requirement that it must be within the powers of the authority making it may conveniently be illustrated by referring to a few cases in which the validity of particular by-laws has come under the consideration of the courts.

A power for a canal company to make by-laws for the good government of the company, and for the good and orderly use of the navigation, and the well governing of the bargemen, watermen, and boatmen, will not extend so as to cover a by-law prohibiting ordinary navigation on the canal on Sundays.

A power to make by-laws for prevention of nuisances on tramcars will cover a by-law which says that no person shall swear or use offensive or obscene language whilst in or upon any car, although the by-law does not go on to make nuisance or annoyance to others a part of the offence.

A statutory obligation to make by-laws prescribing the distances at which one tramcar may follow another is not discharged by the making of a by-law to the effect that the distance shall be such as may be directed by the police.

CERTAINTY OF TERMS.-As regards the requirement that a by-law must be certain, or in other words that it must contain adequate information as to the duties of those by whom it is to be obeyed, an illustration may be taken which arose under the Weights and Measures Act, 1889. This Act empowered certain local authorities to make by-laws, with the approval of the Board of Trade, requiring, either generally or in specified classes of cases, a weighing instrument, of a form approved by the local authority, to be carried with any vehicle in which coal is carried for sale or delivery to a purchaser. A county council made, and

the Board of Trade approved, a by-law to the effect that the person in charge of every vehicle carrying coal for sale or delivery to a purchaser should carry therewith a weighing instrument of a form approved by the county council. It was held that the by-law was not invalid on the ground of uncertainty, through not describing the identical form of weighing instrument approved by the county council. NO REPUGNANCY TO GENERAL LAW.-As regards the question of repugnancy of a by-law to the general law, it may be useful to quote the following passage from the judgment of Channell J. in the case of Gentel v. Rapps (1902), 1, K.B., 160:

"A by-law is not repugnant to the general law, merely because it creates a new offence, and says that something shall be unlawful which the law does not say is unlawful. It is repugnant if it makes unlawful that which the general law says is lawful. It is repugnant if it expressly or by necessary implication proposes to alter the general law of the land. I say by necessary implication' because I have in mind the cases with respect to by-laws prohibiting persons from travelling on railways without a ticket. In those cases by-laws which impose the same penalty as the general law, without making a fraudulent intention part of the description of the offence, have been held to be bad, because the statute creating the offence says that there must be a fraudulent intention on the part of the person charged with travelling without a ticket, and the by-law therefore, by implication, alters the general law. Again a by-law is repugnant if it adds something inconsistent with the provisions of a statute creating the same offence; but if it adds something not inconsistent, that is not sufficient to make the by-law bad as repug

A by-law may be more stringent than a statute creating a similar offence and yet may not be repugnant, but if a statute imposes a penalty for a certain offence, a by-law increasing the penalty will be void for repugnancy.

REASONABLENESS. The principles which ought to regulate the condemnation of a by-law on the ground of unreasonableness are discussed in the case of Kruse v. Johnson, 1898, 2, Q.B., 91, already referred to. A distinction was drawn between by-laws made by bodies of a public representative character and those made by com

panies carrying on business for profit, although incidentally for the advantage of the public. It was laid down that, in the case of by-law-making powers vested in profit-making companies, the courts should jealously watch the exercise of the powers, and guard against their unnecessary or unreasonable exercise to the public disadvantage; whereas, in a case where by-law-making powers are vested in a public representative body, the by-laws ought to be benevolently interpreted, and supported if possible, and credit ought to be given to those who have to administer them that they will be reasonably administered; and the sort of unreasonableness that should condemn them would be that they are partial and unequal in their operation as between different classes, that they are manifestly unjust, that they disclose bad faith, or that they involve such oppressive or gratuitous interference with the rights of those subject to them as could find no justification in the minds of reasonable men.

A by-law has been held to be unreasonable which required a landlord to do something on premises which he might not be able to enter without committing a trespass or breach of contract.

By-laws have been held unreasonable on the ground of their operating in restraint of trade, and it has been held in the Privy Council that a statutory power vested in a colonial municipal council of making by-laws for regulating and governing a trade does not, in the absence of an express power of prohibition, authorise the making it unlawful to carry on a lawful trade in a lawful manner. By-laws in partial restraint of trade have, however, been upheld. For example, a by-law setting aside separate places in a market for wholesale and retail trading has been held not unreasonable; so also a by-law providing that the sale-rings in a market should be used only for public sales of cattle by auction on conditions of sale which should be equally applicable to all bidders and buyers, and that they should not be used for private sales, or for sales to any limited number of persons, or for sales in which any class of the public are excluded from bidding or buying.

Regulations made by conservators of a common as to the playing of golf on the common, though made under approved by-laws, have been held invalid on the ground that they involved the giving of a preference to members of a particular club and residents in a particular parish.

Validity in Part.-A by-law, if divisible into separate and distinct parts, may be held invalid as to one part, and yet valid as regards the remainder.

No Waiver of Compliance.-An authority empowered to enforce by-laws is not entitled to waive compliance with them unless the by-laws themselves confer a dispensing power upon the authority.