REPUBLIC OF NAURU

AN ORDINANCE

To Provide that German Laws shall cease to extend or apply or to be in force in the Island of Nauru, and to adopt certain Laws of England, the Commonwealth, Queensland, and Papua as Laws of the Island of Nauru.

2. This Ordinance may be cited as the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1936.

3. In this Ordinance, unless the contrary intention appears -

"The Island" shall mean the Island of Nauru.

"The Administrator" shall mean the person for the time being administering the government of the Island of Nauru.

4.-(1.) Subject to this Ordinance, all Acts, Statutes, laws, and Ordinances of the German Empire and of any German State, and all laws, Ordinances, regulations, rules, orders, proclamations, and other legislative measures enacted, issued or made in the name of the German Emperor or the German Government by the competent authority for the time being, and expressed to extend to or applied to or in force in the Island of Nauru, shall, as from the commencement of this Ordinance, cease to extend or apply to or be in force in the Island.

(2.) Nothing in the preceding sub-section shall affect the validity, invalidity, effect, or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any existing status or capacity, or any right, title, obligation or liability, civil or criminal, already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or any discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity or the proof of any past act or thing; and any matter, action, prosecution, transaction, or proceeding commenced under any law, Ordinance or enactment affected by this section and pending or in progress at the commencement of this Ordinance may, subject to this Ordinance, be continued, completed, and enforced in accordance with the provisions of such law, Ordinance, or enactment.

5. All Crown grants, titles, certificates, licences, orders, appointments, warrants, notifications, seals, registers, memorials, books, records, entries, instruments, and generally all acts of authority which originated under any of the laws, Ordinances, and enactments effected by this Ordinance, and are subsisting or in force at the commencement of this Ordinance shall, subject to this Ordinance, continue to be valid and subsisting, and shall be received and admissible in evidence to the same extent and in the same manner as heretofore under any law, Ordinance, or enactment that was in force in the Island at the date of the commencement of this Ordinance.

6. All the right, title, estate, interest, control, privileges, and prerogatives of the Government formerly exercising authority over the Island in over and to -

(1) Crown lands or lands vested in or subject to the authority or control of the Government;

(2) lands designated or proclaimed as reserves for the benefit of aboriginal natives;

(3) unclaimed lands;

(4) land in respect of which there has been a failure of heirs;

(5) waste land;

(6) confiscated lands;

(7) lands which have reverted to the Crown by operation of law, or by any deed of surrender, conveyance, or transfer; and

(8) natives lands which have been ceded to the Crown by the natives, or have been purchased or otherwise acquired from the natives on behalf of the Crown, or have become vested in the Crown by right of prerogative or in any other manner whatsoever,

shall at the commencement of this Ordinance pass to and continue to be held and exercised by the Administration.

7. All estate and interests within the Island held by any person from the German Government formerly exercising authority therein, or from the British Administration during the British occupation of the Island and subsisting at the date of the commencement of this Ordinance shall, subject to this or any other Ordinance, continue for the time being, and until other provision is made, to be held from the Administration on the same terms and conditions as they were held from the German Government or the British Administration.

8.-(1) Nothing contained in this Ordinance shall affect the right, title, estate, claim, or interest vested or contingent at the date of commencement of this Ordinance, of any person to or over any land within the Island, or any lease, tenancy, agreement, covenant, easement, charge, pledge, mortgage, or encumbrance in respect of any land within the Island alienated or leased from the Crown at the date of the commencement of this Ordinance.

(2.) All questions of law affecting any matter referred to in the preceding sub-section shall be decided, settled or dealt with in accordance with the laws that were in force in the Island at the date of commencement of this Ordinance.

9. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect the right, title, estate, or interest vested, possessory or contingent, of any aboriginal native to any land within the Island.

10. The institutions, customs and usages of the aboriginal native of the Island shall not be affected by this Ordinance, and shall, subject to the provisions of the Ordinance of the Island from time to time in force, be permitted to continue in existence in so far as the same are not repugnant to the general principles of humanity.

11. Subject to this Ordinance, the Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of the Australia specified in the First Schedule to this Ordinance shall, so far as they are applicable, apply to the Island of Nauru.

12. All laws, Ordinances, proclamations, and other legislative Act made, issued, or done by the authority for the time being administering the Island during the British occupation that are in force in the Island at the commencement of this Ordinance shall, subject to this Ordinance, continue in full force and effect in the Island.

Substituted by No. 2, 1927. s. 3.

13. Those portions of the Acts and Statutes of the State of Queensland specified in the Second Schedule to this Ordinance and any amendments thereto that were in force in the said State on the first day of July in the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one, and those portions of every regulation or rule made under the provisions of any of the said Acts or Statutes that were in force at the date aforesaid are hereby adopted as laws of the Island of Nauru, so far as the same are applicable to the circumstances of the Island, and are not repugnant to, or inconsistent with the provisions of any Act, Ordinance, law, regulation, rule, order, or proclamation having the force of law, that has been, or may hereafter be expressed to extend to, or applied to, or made or promulgated on the Island.

14. Those portions of the Acts, Statutes, and laws of England that are in force in the State of Queensland at the commencement of this Ordinance, and that are applicable and can be applied to the Island of Nauru are to the extent that they are in force in the said State at the commencement of this Ordinance hereby adopted as laws of the Island, so far as the same are applicable to the circumstances of the Island, and are not repugnant to or inconsistent with the provisions of any Act, Ordinance, law, regulation, rule, order, or proclamation having the force of law that has been or may hereafter be expressed to extend to or applied to or made or promulgated in Territory.

15. Those portions of the Ordinances of the Territory of Papua specified in the Third Schedule to this Ordinance that are in force in the said Territory of Papua at the commencement of this Ordinance, and those portions of every regulation or rule made under the provisions of any of the Ordinances that are in force in the said Territory of Papua at the commencement of this Ordinance are hereby adopted as Ordinances, regulations, and rules of the Island of Nauru so far as the same are applicable to the circumstances of the Island, and are not repugnant to or inconsistent with the provisions of any Act, Ordinance, law, regulation, rule, order, or proclamation having the force of law that has been or may hereafter be expressed to extend to or applied to or made or promulgated in the island.

16. The principles and rules of common law and equity that for the time being are in force in England shall, so far as the same are applicable to the circumstances of the Island of Nauru, be likewise the principles and rules of common law and equity that shall for the time being be in force in the Island.

17. All or any references to authorities, persons, places, subjects, matters, or things in any Act, Statute, law, regulation, or rule hereby adopted shall be taken as referring to corresponding or analogous authorities, persons, places, subjects, matters, or things in the Island of Nauru, and for the purpose of facilitating the application of any of the aforesaid Acts, Statute, laws, regulations, or rules hereby adopted, it shall be lawful for any Court or magistrate to construe the same with such verbal alteration not affecting the substance as may be necessary to render the same applicable to the matter before the Court or magistrate.

Amended by No. 3, 1936,. s. 2.

18. In the application of the Island of the Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia specified in the Schedule to this Ordinance, references to the Governor-General, or the Minister charged with the administration of the Act, or to a Permanent Head of a Department, or to an officer in whom powers, or functions under those Acts are vested, shall be read as references to the Administrator.

The Administrator is hereby authorized to exercise within the Island the powers conferred by any of those Acts upon the Governor-General, or the Minister, or Permanent Head, or any such other officer.

Provided that, in the application to the Island of Audit Act 1901-1920, the provisions of the section shall not apply.

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SCHEDULES

THE FIRST SCHEDULE

ACTS OF THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA APPLIED BY THIS ORDINANCE TO THE ISLAND.

Amended by No.1, 1925,s. 3. and by No. 2 of 19 33,s. 2. and by No. 5. 1935.s. 3.

Aliens Registration Act 1920.
Audit Act 1901-1920.
Bills of Exchange Act 1909-1912.
Coinage Act 1909.
Commence (Trade Descriptions) Act 1905
Commonwealth Workman’s Compensation Act 1912.
Copyright Act 1912-1933.
Crimes Act 1914-1915.
Designs Act 1906-1934.
Evidence Act 1905.
Immigration Act 1901-1920.
Marine Insurance Act 1900.
Meteorology Act 1906.
Nationality Act 1920.
Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Act 1910.
Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Act 1914-1915.
Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Act 1932.
Quarantine Act 1908-1920.
Sea Carriage of Goods Act 1924.
Seamen’s Compensation Act 1911.
Secret Commission Act 1905.
State Laws and Records Recognitions Act 1901.
Statutory Declarations Act 1911.
Trade Marks Act 1905-1934.
Wireless Telegraphy Act 1905-1919.
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THE SECOND SCHEDULE.

ACTS OF THE STATE OF QUEENSLAND APPLIED BY THIS ORDINANCE TO THE ISLAND.

The Criminal Code Act 1899-The First Schedule.
Statute of Frauds and Limitations of 1807.
Succession Act of 1867.
Succession Act of Declaratory Act 1884.

THE THIRD SCHEDULE.

ORDINANCES OF THE TERRITORY OF PAPUA APPLIED BY THE ORDINANCE TO ISLAND.

Bill of Sale Ordinance 1912.
Companies Ordinance 1912.
Coroners Ordinance 1911.
Criminal Code Amendment Ordinance of 1907.
Criminal Procedure Ordinance 1889.
Defamation Ordinance 1911.
Employers’ Liability Ordinance 1912.
Insolvency Ordinance 1912.
Marriage Ordinance 1912-1914.
Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction Ordinance 1910.
Mercantile Ordinance 1912.
Oaths Ordinance 1912.
Partnership Ordinance 1912.
Ports and Telegraph Ordinance 1912-1916.
Probate and Administration Ordinance 1913-1915.
Registration of Birth, Deaths and Marriages Ordinance 1912.
Seamen (Foreign) Ordinance 1912.
Weights and Measures Ordinance 1913.
Wreck and Salvage Ordinance of 1902.
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