I move:—
(1) That so much of Section 2 of the Hawkers Act, 1888, as defines the meaning of the word "hawker" in that Act shall be repealed and that in lieu thereof the word "hawker" wherever it occurs in the said Act shall be construed as meaning and including the following persons and the said Act shall have effect accordingly, that is to say:—
(a) Any person who travels either with a horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden or with a mechanically propelled vehicle and goes from place to place or to other men's houses carrying to sell or barter or exposing for sale or barter any goods, wares, or merchandise or exposing samples or patterns of any goods, wares, or merchandise to be afterwards delivered, and
(b) any person who travels either with a horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden or with a mechanically propelled vehicle carrying with him any goods, wares, or merchandise (other than goods, wares, or merchandise carried for delivery to a purchaser in pursuance of a previous order) and sells or barters or exposes for sale or barter any of such goods, wares or merchandise at any other person's house, and
(c) any person who travels by any means of locomotion to any place in which he does not usually reside or carry on business and there sells or barters or exposes for sale or barter any goods, wares, or merchandise either in or from any vehicle or in or at any house, shop, room, booth, stall or other place whatever hired or used by him for that purpose.
(2) That notwithstanding anything contained in the Hawkers Act, 1888, the duty to be paid on an excise licence issued under Section 3 of the said Act to a person who is a hawker by virtue of sub-paragraph (a) or sub-paragraph (b) of the first paragraph of this Resolution and travels with a mechanically propelled vehicle or a person who is a hawker by virtue of sub-paragraph (c) of the said paragraph shall be ten pounds, and no such person shall be deemed to be duly licensed under the said Act by reason only of his having taken out a licence under the said Act on which a less duty than ten pounds was paid.
(3) That it shall not be necessary for a licence to be taken out under the Hawkers Act, 1888, by any person selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, bread, milk, coal, peat, or firewood, and no other goods.
(4) That paragraphs (c) and (d) of sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the Hawkers Act, 1888, shall be repealed.
The purpose of No. 3 is to widen the scope of the tax on hawkers. It is widened by two passages in this Resolution. In sub-paragraph (c) the tax on hawkers is extended to include those who have booths at fairs and markets as well as the hawkers who go from house to house, The tax is also widened by paragraph (3). In the present law there is a provision exempting from the necessity of taking out a hawker's licence any person selling fish, fruit, victuals or coal. This Resolution substitutes any person selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, bread, milk, coal, peat or firewood; that is it leaves out the word "victuals" which by legal decisions has been given a very wide interpretation, an interpretation which means anything that either by itself or mixed with another substance may be used as a food, and we are substituting this list of articles. That generally is the purpose of introducing this Resolution, to enable the section in the Bill to be wider than the first Resolution which was moved in the Dáil would permit.