FIRE-ARMS ACT

1920, prohibits any person under 14 years of age, and any other person to whom a police certificate (known as a ‘fire-arm certificate *) has not been granted, from urchasing, po e ing, using, or carryng any fire-arm or ammunition. Persons, however, in the naval, military, or air service, or in the police foree, gunsmiths, dealers, carriers, warehousemen, officers of the B ens office, members of approved rifle-clubs or cadet corps, persons engaged in the humane slaughter of animals for food or other purposes, and persons po e ing flre-arms or ammunition as part of the equipment of a ship or carrying such for the use, for sporting purposes, of a certificated person, are exempt from the obligation to hold certificates in respect of fire-arms or ammunition carried, used, or po e ed in tho course of duty or busine . Persons manufacturing, selling, hiring, repairing, testing, or proving, or lending or transferring fire-arms or ammunition, must be registered as fire-arms dealers. The registration feo is£1. Any constable may demand production of a certificate. The fee payable for a certificate is 5s.; it continues in force for three years, and is renewable for the like period from time to time at a cost of 2s. 6d. Antique firearms po e ed as curios or ornaments are excluded from the Act, and a certificate may be dispensed with in respect of fire-arms po e ed only as trophies of the war. See GUN LicENCH 446 FIRE-BALL FIRE-BALL, (1) an obsolete kind of offensive weapon, consisting of a ball filed with powder or other combustibles, intended to be thrown among enemies, and to injure by explosion, or to set fire to their works; (2) a name applied to meteors of special brilliancy. These in general differ from others only by being of greater ma and volume. They therefore give out a larger amount of light when heated to incandescence, and are able to penetrate the atmosphere to a greater depth and descend nearer to the earth’s surface before becoming disintegrated. Not intrequentiy the In mino us trails formed by the particles brushed off the surface of the meteor continue visible for many minutes after their appearance, and a ume twisted forms through the diverse wind currents existing at different heights.