HONG KONG
LEGAL REPORT
THE MERCHANT SHIPPING (AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE 1970.
(No. 63 of 1970)
Enclosure No. 2
The Ordinance amends the Merchant Shipping Ordinance
(Chapter 281) in three respects.
2. Section 2 repeals and replaces section 92 of the principal Ordinance, which limited the use of trawlers below a specified size and trawlers commanded by an officer holding only a local certificate of competency as a trawling master. Changing conditions in the fishing industry, and the advent of modern mechanical aids on trawlers have outdated the restriction upon the size of trawlers which was imposed in the former section 92. The new section 92 removes the former restrictions, except that a trawler may not be taken beyond certain limits by a trawling master whose certificate of competency is endorsed as "LIMITED".
3. Section 3 makes formal amendments to section 93 of the principal Ordinance, which are consequential upon the revision of section 92.
4. Section 4 adds a new section 107A, in similar terms to section 100(3) of the principal Ordinance, which applies only to vessels to which Part XIII of the Ordinance applies. The new section will enable the Director, after due inquiry, to cancel or suspend a local certificate of competency issued under regulations made under Part XIV of the Ordinance, if he is satisfied that the holder has been guilty of incompetence or negligence in the performance of his duties as a master or engineer.
5. Section 5 repeals the proviso to section 117 of the principal Ordinance, which speċified the exchange rate at which sterling fines under the Merchant Shipping Acts, as applied to Hong Kong, were to be calculated in Hong Kong dollars. This is now dealt with by section 10 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Chapter 1).
6.
Before His Excellency the Governor assented to the Bill in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, I advised that he could properly do so.
22nd June, 1970.
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
HONG KONG,
Soup Rotak
Attorney General.