(New Zealand) Lord Watson discussed the meaning of the word ‘include’ in a list in a statute: ‘The word ‘include’ is very generally used in interpretation clauses in order to enlarge the meaning of words or phrases occurring in the body of the statute; and when it is so used, these words or phrases must be construed as comprehending, not only such things as they signify according to their natural import, but also those things which the interpretation clause declares that they shall include. But the word ‘include’ is susceptible of another construction, which may become imperative, if the context of the Act is sufficient to show that it was not merely employed for the purpose of adding to the natural significance of the words or expressions defined. It may be equivalent to ‘mean and include’ and in that case it may afford an exhaustive explanation of the meaning which, for the purposes of the Act, must invariably be attached to these words or expressions’.
Lord Watson
[1898] UKPC 61, [1898] UKPC 62
Bailii, Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – National Dock Labour Board v John Bland and Company Ltd and others HL 25-May-1971
The parties disputed whether the timber companies with yards adjacent to the regulated ports were in those Ports so as to make their workers ‘dock workers’. Timber would be unloaded from ships and stored within the docks, before, when needed, it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 20 September 2021; Ref: scu.417192