The Secretary, Home and Territories Department, has forwarded papers relative to a prisoner in Western Australia who is due for discharge, and has asked for advice as to whether the case would fall within the scope of section 8 of the Immigration Act 1901-1912.

Attached to the papers is the following minute by the Collector of Customs, Western Australia:

The attached papers refer to a [person] named A.B., who was found guilty at the September 1915 Sessions of the Eastern Goldfields Circuit Court on a charge of gross indecency with a male person and sentenced to two years' hard labour.

1. Particulars respecting the crime for which B. is serving his sentence, together with police report as to his character generally, are also included in the papers.
2. He is not a naturalized British subject.
3. Submitted for instructions as to whether action should be taken under section 8 of the Immigration Act 1901-1912.
4. As B. is due for discharge on the 9th instant, I shall be glad if the Secretary will telegraph his instructions immediately the Minister's decision is known.

The offence of which the prisoner was convicted was evidently an offence against the provisions of section 184 of the Western Australian Criminal Code, which is as follows:

Any male person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another male person, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any male person with himself or with another male person, whether in public or private, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment with hard labour for three years, with or without whipping.

Section 8 of the Immigration Act 1901-1912 is as follows:

Any person who is not a British subject either natural-born or naturalized under a law of the United Kingdom or of the Commonwealth or of a State, and who is convicted of any crime of violence against the person, shall be liable, upon the expiration of any term of imprisonment imposed on him therefor, to be required to pass the dictation test, and if he fails to do so shall be deemed to be a prohibited immigrant and shall be deported from the Commonwealth pursuant to any order of the Minister.

In my opinion the offence in question is a crime of violence within the meaning of section 8 of the Immigration Act 1901-1912.

[Vol. 15, p.18]

1. This opinion is unsigned in the Opinion Book, but it is attributed to Sir Robert Garran.