Police Offenses Act (repealed)

The nation’s Parliament passed the Police Offenses Act in 1928. It remained in force until a new Act was passed in 1981.

The old Police Offenses Act covered a raft of misdemeanors. It was, for example, an offense to allow a mare to be mated within site of a public road. Why it was all right for cattle and sheep and do the wild thing beside the road, and not horses, is now lost in the sands of time.

Mind you, the same Act also made it illegal to fly a kite, beat a rug in public, and wear slippers in a public place by night.

It was also an offense to “ride furiously”. This beautifully crafted phrase was obviously to cover the old-fashioned equivalent of reckless driving.