415
Objects and Reasons.
1. The object of this Ordinance is to enable the colonial light dues prescribed by the Order in Council set out in the Appendix to be collected in Hong Kong.
2. The twelve lighthouses and the buoy mentioned in the Schedule to the Order in Council are administered by the Board of Trade and have been maintained by the General Lighthouse Fund which derives its revenues mainly from light dues collected in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.
3. They have been maintained and improved, at con- siderable expense, in the interests of shipping of all nations deriving benefit from the lights, and it has become necessary to reconsider the incidence of the cost of the service. To this end His Majesty has been pleased to make an Order in Council on the 17th December, 1931, under section 670 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, providing for the levy of a due, of one penny per ton on all ships passing and deriving benefit from the lighthouses and buoy in the Bahamas, and of a half-penny per ton on ships passing and deriving benefit from the light at Sombrero.
4. As stated in the preamble to the Order in Council section 670 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, also provides that colonial light dues shall not be levied in any British possession unless the legislature of that possession has signified its opinion that the dues ought to be levied. Section 2 of this Ordinance therefore expresses the statutory opinion. Section 3 makes provision for the collection locally.
May, 1934.
R. E. LINDSELL,
Attorney General.