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Explanatory Memorandum.
The Bill seeks to amend the Merchant Shipping Ordin- ance (Chapter 281) in three respects.
2. Clause 2 repeals and replaces section 92 of the principal Ordinance, which provides for the permitted use of trawlers of a specified size and the command of trawlers by an officer holding a certificate of competency as a trawling master. Changing condi- tions in the fishing industry and the advent of modern mechanical aids on board trawlers have outdated the restriction upon the size of trawlers which are imposed at present by section 92. The new section 92 removes the former restrictions except that which prescribes the limits beyond which a trawler may not be taken by a trawling master whose certificate of competency is endorsed as "LIMITED".
3. Clause 3 makes formal amendments to section 93, con- sequential upon the revision of section 92.
4.
Clause 4 adds a section 107A, in similar terms to section 100(3), 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 com- petency issued under regulations made under Part XIV of the Ordinance, if he is satisfied that the holder thereof has been guilty of incompetency or negligence in the performance of his duties as a master or engineer.
5. Clause 5 repeals the proviso to section 117 of the principal Ordinance, which deals with the exchange rate at which sterling fines under the Merchant Shipping Acts, as applied to Hong Kong, are to be calculated in Hong Kong dollars, since this is now covered by section 10 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance.
DENYS ROBERTS,
Attorney General.