950
2. Any qualified person desiring such assistance shall send his application. with full particulars as to his circumstances, to the Harbour Master, who, after making such enquiry, if any, as he deem necessary, shall convene a meeting of the members of the Committee in the Colony to consider the case.
3. At any such meeting four members shall be deemed a quorum, the decisions of the Committee shall be determined by a majority of votes and the Chairman shall have an original vote and also, if the votes be equal, a casting vote.
4. The grant or refusal of assistance shall be in the absolute discretion of the Committee.
5. Assistance shall be of three descriptions.
(u) The payment, in whole or in part, of passages from the Colony.
(b) Regular assistance in the Colony.
(c) Temporary assistance in the Colony.
6. Assistance may be reduced, suspended or discontinued at any time by the Committee. In no case shall it be granted to a person who has received a passage, or an assisted passage from the Colony and has returned thereto.
7. Regular assistance may be granted only to qualified persons who are British subjects and who reside, or whos? families reside in the Colony.
8. Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained the Harbour Master may at any time grant temporary assistance as a charge on the Fund to an amount of or in value not exceeding $20 in respect of any one qualified applicant, on his own responsibility and without consulting the other members of the Committee, who however shall be informed thereof at their next meeting.
9. The Committee shall, not later than the 1st March, in each year, furnish to the Governor a report on their adminis- tration of the Fund for the previous year.
Objects and Reasons.
1. The object of this Ordinance is to establish in the Colony a Mercantile Marine Assistance Fund to be administer- ed by a Committee financed by the revenues of the Colony.
2. Similar Funds have been established in Singapore and Penang, under Straits Settlements Ordinance No. 125, s. 417 (as amended by No. 28 of 1926); but there the financing is done by debiting the expenses of the Fund against a particular section of the revenue, the fees paid in respect of Sunday Cargo Working exemptions. In Calcutta a proportion of the Sunday working fees is allocated to the Seamen's Welfare Committee there. In England similar service is performed by the Mercantile Marine Masters and Officers Relief Fund which receives contributions from the National Relief Fund, King George's Fund and other sources.
C. G. ALABASTER,
September, 1933.
Attorney General.