461
C.S.O. 9/1259/21.
A BILL
INTITULED
[No. 17 :-- 20.4.32.—3.]
An Ordinance to regulate the employment of Young Persons
and Children at Sea.
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Employment of Short title. Young Persons and Children at Sea Ordinance, 1932.
ment on
under 14.
2. Children under fourteen years of age shall not be Restriction employed or work on vessels, other than vessels upon which on employ- only members of the same family are employed: Provided vessels of that nothing in this section shall affect the employment or work children of such a child on any junk or sampan if the child is in the charge of a relative who is also a member of the crew of such junk or sampan and if such relative is in the opinion of the Harbour Master a fit and proper person to have charge of such child. Provided also that nothing in this section shail affect the employment or work of such a child on any school ship or training ship if such employment and work is approved and supervised by public authority.
of members
3. The master of every vessel registered or licensed in Registers the Colony shall keep a register, in a form supplied or approved or crews by the Harbour Master, of all persons under the age of sixteen who are years employed by him on board his vessel, or a list of them under 16. in the articles of agreement, and the dates of their births.
4. For the purposes of this Ordinance the term "vessel" Application. includes all ships and boats of any nature whatsoever, engaged in maritime navigation whether publicly or privately owned, except ships of war.
5. Any person who contravenes any provision of this Penalty. Ordinance shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars.
6. This Ordinance shall not come into operation unless Suspending and until the Governor notifies by Proclamation that it is His clause. Majesty's pleasure not to disallow the same and thereafter it shall come into operation upon such day as the Governor shall notify by the same or any other Proclamation.
Objects and Reasons.
1. On the 9th July, 1920, a general conference of the International Labour Organization of the League of Nations adopted a Convention fixing fourteen years as the minimum age for admission of children to employment at sea, except in school ships and training ships and in vessels upon which only members of the same family are employed, and requiring shipmasters to keep a register of all persons under sixteen years of age.