The Acting Comptroller-General has forwarded for advice the following memorandum from the Collector of Customs, South Australia:

The above Act provides that a statutory declaration may be made before (among others) a Justice of the Peace.

In South Australia there is in force the Declarations and Attestations Act 1913 (4 Geo.V, No.1114) which provides:

4 Whenever by or under any Act it is provided-

1. that any declaration shall or may be made before a Justice of the Peace, or a Justice of the Peace or some other person or authority, or
2. that any instrument shall or may be signed or executed in the presence of, or be attested by, a Justice of the Peace, or a Justice of the Peace or some other person or authority,

that provision shall be deemed to be complied with if, in the case of a declaration, the same is made before, or, in the case of an instrument, the same is signed or executed in the presence of or attested by (as the case may require), either-

1. a Justice of the Peace for the said State, or, if the particular Act so permits, for any other State or country, or such other person or authority, or
2. any proclaimed postmaster, or
3. any proclaimed bank manager, or
4. any proclaimed member of the Police Force of the said State.

The question arises as to whether a statutory declaration under the Commonwealth Act may properly be accepted if made before, say, a proclaimed bank manager; and the matter is submitted for instructions.

The first line of section 4 above uses the term 'any Act' and the point seems to be whether 'any Act' means any Act of the South Australian Parliament or any Act whatever. It will of course be noticed that in Federal Acts the term 'Act' refers to an Act of the Parliament of the Commonwealth (Acts Interpretation Act 1901, section 38).

A statutory declaration made under the Statutory Declarations Act 1911 can only be accepted if it is made before any of the persons mentioned in section 5 of that Act, and no State Act can have any effect in adding to the persons before whom such a statutory declaration may be made.

[Vol. 18, p. 185]