that the accused is under
the age of 21 and had reasonable cause to believe that the girl
was of or over the age of 16 years.

The law on this point is not uniform throughout the Commonwealth. In
Victoria the defence of consent is available only when the girl is older
than, or of the same age as, the accused (_vide_ Crimes Act 1928, Vict.
3664, sec. 45). The Committee has been officially informed that this law
(most rigid when compared with the defence of consent available in this
Dominion) has been working well since it was first enacted about fifty
years ago.

In England the defence of consent is available to any accused under the
age of 23 years, but only on the first occasion on which he is charged
with the offence.

In an English case, _R._ v. _Banks_, (1916) 2 K.B. 621, this defence of
consent was raised by a man who said that he had no idea that the girl
was under the age of 16 and that he did not think about her age at all,
but that she had the appearance of a girl of 16. The Court of Criminal
Appeal held that he was properly convicted. On the other hand, the Court
of Appeal in New Zealand in _R._ v. _Perry and Pledger_, (1920) N.Z.L.R.
21 (despite the argument of the Solicitor-General to the contrary),
decided that, if in the eyes of the jury the girl might well be taken by
an ordinary person to be of the age of 16, that would be evidence (not
necessarily proof) of a reasonable cause for the belief that she was of
that age. Hence it comes about that under our law it is not necessary
for an accused person to go into the witness box or to call any evidence
to show that the girl appeared to him to be over the age of consent. The
nature of her clothing, red on her lips, the fact that she is said to
smoke and drink, and evidence on other similar matters, enable a verdict
of acquittal to be given.

=(4) Weaknesses in the Law=

_(a) Operation of the Rule Regarding Age of Consent_

The readiness of juries to acquit in cases of carnal knowledge of, or
indecent assault upon, girls may be due to several facts, of which the
following may be mentioned:

(i) The failure of the law to make it an offence for a
sophisticated girl to entice a male into carnal knowledge of her.

(ii) The modern practice of not publishing the names of the girls
involved.

(iii) The fact that the defence of consent is available to persons
under 21 years of age is a factor making it more difficult to
obtain a convicti