Horsey v Caldwell [1946] HCA 63

304 HIGH COURT [1946.

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

HORSEY ' ' : : : ' " . APPELLANT; INFORMANT,

AND

CALDWELL . . ' i : : : . RESPONDENT. DEFENDANT,

H.C. or A, National Security—Black marketing—Offence—Declared goods—Meat—Sale at price

1946. greater than fixed maximum price—Maximum price—Fixation—* Proclaimed Ww area" —" Part of Australia"—Provisions in regulation—Quaere, mutually SYDNEY, exclusive alternatives—Order—Validity—Severability of clauses—Conviction— Dec. 10. Penalty—Black Marketing Act 1942 (No. 49 of 1942), ss. 3, 4—Crimes Act

1914-1941 (No. 12 of 1914—No. 6 of 1941), 8. 20—National Security (Prices) Regulations (8.R. 1940 No. 176-—1946 No. 19), regs. 21, 22, 23 (1), (14), 29, 45x (ba).

The methods of fixation prescribed by reg. 23 (1) of the National Security (Prices) Regulations may be exercised concurrently.

Ex parte Byrne; Re King, (1944) 45 S.R. (N.S.W.) 123; 62 W.N. 104, approved. By reason of amendments to reg. 23 (1) and reg. 458 made by Statutory Rule

1946 No. 19 made subsequent to the decision in Willmore v. The Commonwealth, (1945) 70 C.L.R. 587, that decision no longer applies.

For the purposes of Prices Regulation Order No. 2166 the Commissioner, in the seventh schedule to the order, divided the State of New South Wales into nine areas, principally on the basis of including in the respective areas certain contiguous municipalities and shires, Area 14 included the City of Sydney and six shires and fifty-eight municipalities in the vicinity of Sydney. By par. 8 of the order the Commissioner purported to fix and declare the maximum prices at which meat might he sold in New South Wales to be the prices shown in the sixth schedule, 'The prices so fixed and declared were different in respect to different areas.

Held that the areas were "localities of sale" within the meaning of reg. 23 (1a), therefore par. 8, read in conjunction with the schedules, was valid.