599
[No. 21-23.6.34.-1.]
(C.S.O. 3690/1934).
A BILL
INTITULED
An Ordinance to amend the Crown Counsel's Fees Ordinance,
1903.
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 Crown Counsel's Short title. Fees Amendment Ordinance, 1934.
of Ordin- ance No. 24
2. Section 2 of the Crown Counsel's Fees Ordinance, Amendment 1903, is amended by the insertion of the words "or any Assistant Attorney General or any Counsel attached to the of 1903, s. 2. Attorney General's department" immediately after the words "Attorney General" in each sub-section thereof.
Objects and Reasons.
1. When the principal Ordinance, No. 24 of 1903, was framed to allow of the taxation and recovery of the appro· priate fee for counsel where the Attorney General had appeared and won his case, and when the Law Final Revision Ordinance, 1912, made such fees, in the absence of some contractual arrangement or regulation to the contrary, payable into the general revenue, the possibility of the appointment of an Assistant Attorney General or other counsel to assist in the work of the Attorney General's department was apparently overlooked.
2. In a recent appeal case in which the Crown was interested, the Assistant Attorney General appeared for the respondent, and on the appeal being dismissed obtained an order for costs against the appellant. The bill of costs including fee for counsel was duly paid, but it was then discovered that it was very doubtful whether under the law, as it stands, such a fee was rightly included in the bill.
3. The present amendment cures this defect.
June, 1934.
R. E. LINDSELL,
Attorney General.