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Appendix II
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 23rd November 1966 425
The Schedule, as amended, was agreed to.
Council then resumed.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL reported that the Legal Aid Bill 1966 had passed through Committee with certain amendments and moved the Third reading.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded.
The question was put and agreed to.
The Bill was read a Third time and passed.
ADJOURNMENT
THE COLONial SecretaRY addressed the Council and moved the adjournment.
He said:-Mr President, I beg to move that this Council do now adjourn. In so doing, Sir, I am creating a precedent in this Council and although on future occasions I shall not speak to this motion perhaps I may be permitted to say a word this afternoon.
The half-hour adjournment debate is an old established and popular practice in the House of Commons in London and I am hopeful that we can make a success of it here. The idea briefly is that at the end of the formal business of each sitting of this Council there should be an opportunity for an Unofficial Member to raise a matter, an administrative matter for which the Government is responsible, and to obtain from the Official side a reply.
In this way honourable Members will be able to initiate a brief debate on some matter of general public interest or concern without the formality of a substantive motion and without the rigidity that is required in the asking and answering of questions. After the motion has been seconded the Unofficial Member who obtains the right to do so will be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes on his pet subject to introduce it. He may then be followed by one or more Members, both Unofficial or Official, who wish to speak on that same subject whether in opposition to or in support of the original speaker's arguments. Thereafter an Official Member will be called upon to reply to the arguments and the points that have been raised. For this he will be allocated the last ten minutes of the half-hour period for debate.
If this
procedure is to be a success, however, we must all accept certain restrictions and conditions and I hope that honourable Members will both stick to their subjects and their time limits. I also hope that they will give the usual notice of the subject they wish to raise because