1 WHENEVER it is stated that an offender is liable to a specified term of penal servitude, the meaning is that he may be sentenced to that or to any shorter term of penal servitude not being less than three years, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour. 2 In cases where the punishment appointed for an offence by statute is transportation, penal servitude has been substituted. 154 & 55 Vict. c. 69, s. 1. The effect of this and the repealed 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47, s. 2, seems to be that where the term of five years was the maximum sentence in Acts previous to 5 August, 1891, it still remains so. 216 & 17 Vict. c. 99, 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. IMPRISONMENT. If the punishment specified is a term of imprisonment with hard labour, or a fine of a specified amount, the meaning (unless any qualification is specified) is that the offender may be sentenced to that or to any shorter term of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, or to pay any fine of less amount. WHIPPING. The letter W at the end of a reference to a statute means that the offender may, if a male under sixteen years of age, be sentenced to whipping. ALTERATIONS IN LANGUAGE OF STATUTES. The future and the past future are uniformly altered to the present tense. Where Where "shall" is used as an imperative "must" is substituted. Where the language of a statute appeared needlessly verbose for common purposes, the leading word or an equivalent is preserved in the text, and the words omitted are inserted in a foot-note for reference if necessary. The language of the statutes is in most cases rearranged for the sake of clearness; but the words "redrawn," "condensed," or others of the same sort, indicate the cases in which the greatest alterations have been made. DRAFT CODE. The expression "Draft Code" means the Draft Code appended to the Report of the Criminal Code Commission published in 1879, and marked C. 2345. |