Spence v Ravenscroft

The complainant, James Spence, appealed to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which had affirmed a magistrate's dismissal of an information. The information charged the defendant, Lionel Bebington Ravenscroft, with trading on a Sunday by selling cigarettes from a slot machine located on a steamship. The transaction involved a passenger placing money into the machine and receiving cigarettes in return.

The legal issue before the High Court was whether the defendant's conduct, specifically the operation of a slot machine that dispensed goods on a Sunday, constituted "trading or dealing" within the meaning of section 61 of the *Police Offences Act 1901* (NSW). This section prohibited trading or dealing on Sundays, with certain exceptions.

A majority of the High Court, comprising Griffith C.J., Gavan Duffy and Rich JJ., held that an offence under section 61 required an act involving human labour or attention on the part of the alleged offender on the Sunday in question. They reasoned that the purpose of the legislation was directed towards personal conduct on Sundays and that the word "trades" in the section was limited to such personal acts. As the transaction was conducted solely through an inanimate machine without direct human intervention by the defendant or his agent on the Sunday, no offence was committed. Isaacs J., dissenting, argued that the nature of the transaction, being a sale of goods, was not altered by the day on which it occurred, and that the defendant, by making the machine available, was engaged in trading.

The appeal was dismissed, with the High Court affirming the decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The defendant was therefore not found guilty of trading on Sunday.