Use of noisy instruments prohibited in certain circumstances

(1) Any person who wishes to publicise the holding of any public meeting or public procession by means of any noisy instrument or to use any such instrument at any public meeting or procession shall at least twenty-four hours before the hour at which it is proposed to commence the meeting or procession and before any such instrument is used for the said purpose apply to the appropriate officer for a permit to use such noisy (2) The appropriate officer may, if he considers that the grant of a permit in terms of subsection (1) of this section will not inconvenience the public or the neighbourhood in which it is proposed to use it, issue a permit for the use of a particular noisy instrument stipulating such conditions as to the time and route as he may consider necessary. The refusal of the appropriate officer to issue such a permit shall be final. (3) Notwithstanding the issue of a permit under subsection (2) of this section, no person shall for the purpose of any public meeting or public procession use any noisy instrument at any time of day or night within one hundred yards of any hospital, or of any court of law or school while the court or school is in session or of any church, chapel or other building appropriated for religious worship while any divine worship is going on. (4) The permit issued by the appropriate officer under this section shall be carried and made available for examination by any police officer at all times when such public meeting or public procession is being publicised or held. 14 (5) Any person who organises, holds, speaks at or takes part in any public meeting or public procession at which a noisy instrument is used without a permit issued by the appropriate officer or in violation of any condition subject to which it is issued or in contravention of the provisions of subsection (3) or (4) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and term of imprisonment, and the noisy instrument which was the subject of the offence shall be liable to be forfeited to the State.