"
YOLU MAN M
1157
Objects and Reasons.
1. The proviso added to section 4 (2) of Ordinance No. 10 of 1899 by section 2 of Ordinance No. 11 of 1931 permitted the Governor in Council to grant special exemption from the requirements of that section in the case of ships which regularly ply between the Colony and certain neighbouring non-treaty ports. Those vessels were virtually ferry vessels.
2. The ferry vessels which regularly ply between two or more points within the Colony and do not proceed beyond its waters have hitherto been vessels not exceeding sixty tons register and have therefore been treated as launches under section 37 of Ordinance No. 10 of 1899.
3. Now that a ferry for the carriage of motor cars and other vehicles as well as passengers has been established, vessels exceeding sixty tons register are necessary.
Indeed even the capacity of the ordinary passenger ferry vessels is becoming increasingly taxed by the growth of the population in outlying residential districts which are separated by water from the city of Victoria.
4. This Ordinance therefore amends sections 4, 10, and 37 of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899, so as to subject all local ferry vessels to the launch regulations contained in Table E of the Schedule as amended by the Governor in Coun- cil and for the time being in force.
5. These regulations in Table E have been amended from time to time by the Governor in Council under sections 37 (2) and 43 (3) of the principal Ordinance. If this amending Ordi- nance is approved it is proposed to consolidate them in a new Table in which ferry vessels will be mentioned expressly in the heading and in the regulations applicable to them and licence fees for ferry vessels exceeding sixty tons will be in- cluded in regulation 12 as enacted by Government Notification No. 77 of the Hong Kong Government Gazette of the 5th February, 1924.
April, 1933.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General,