I am opposed to this amendment and I think the case has been completely put against it by Senator Comyn. Under Section 12 of the Bill, a sanitary authority must issue a slaughter licence if a person is over 18 years of age, if he resides, carries on business or is employed in the area of the sanitary authority, and if he is considered to be a fit and proper person to hold such a licence. It seems to me that the only question that would be likely to arise on appeal would be the question of whether he was a fit and proper person to whom a licence should issue, and it is conceivable that a sanitary authority, for various reasons, political or otherwise, might inflict hardship on an individual and declare that he was not a fit and proper person and refuse him a licence; but so long as the Bill makes provision for an appeal to the District Court, I think the applicant is completely safeguarded.
The principle has already been adopted in this House in the Road Traffic Act in relation to bus drivers' and bus conductors' licences. The appeal lies to the District Court in that case and there is no further appeal to the Circuit Court. When the Milk and Dairies Bill was before the House, the House agreed that the appeal from the local authority should be to the Minister and that he should be the ultimate and final court of appeal. We want to avoid, if possible, expensive litigation on what will be a comparatively small matter. The licence fee will probably be only about 5/-. Many of the people who will hold slaughter licences will not be men of means at all. If they proceeded to the Circuit Court and, logically, if they could go to the Circuit Court, they should be free to go to the Supreme Court— ultimately, the sanitary authority might win the case, and, in many instances, would not be able to recover their expenses, with the result that the rates would have to bear the burden of all the expensive litigation. I do not think that under the Bill as it stands, there is any danger that hardship or injustice will be inflicted on anybody, and there are strong reasons for opposing the expensive litigation that might be incurred under the amendment.