798
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
No. S. 239. The following Bills were read a first time at a meeting of the Council held on the 26th August, 1936 :-
Short title,
Amendment of Ordinance No. 21 of
1932, s. 8.
A BILL
INTITULED
[No. 8-6.7.36.-2.]
An Ordinance to amend again the Pensions Ordinance, 1932.
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 Pensions Amend- ment (No. 3) Ordinance, 1936.
2. Section 8 of the Pensions Ordinance, 1932, is amended by the addition of the following proviso at the end thereof:-
Provided nevertheless that it shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to grant a pension, gratuity or other allowance, calculated according to the principles upon which pensions, gratuities and other allowances are calculated under this Ordinance, to any officer who, with the consent of the Governor and with the approval of the Secretary of State, has voluntarily retired before attaining the age of fifty years not later than the 4th June, 1938.
Objects and Reasons.
1. Paragraph (b) of section 8 of the Pensions Ordinance (No. 21 of 1932 as amended by No. 29 of 1935 and No. 3 of 1936) permits voluntary retirement on pension after an officer has attained the age of fifty years if the officer gets the consent of the Governor to his retirement.
2. Otherwise (except in the cases of women and of certain Indian subordinate officers in the Prison department) the normal age for voluntary retirement is fifty-five.
3. This Bill, when enacted, will give the Governor, with the approval of the Secretary of State, power to consent to voluntary retirement before the age of fifty is attained in the case of officers who so retire not later than the 4th June, 1938.
4. It is considered that economies can be effected in cases where retirement results in a reduction of staff or in filling vacancies with less highly paid officers, and it is the contempla- tion of such cases and the necessity to reduce the Budget deficit consequent on the fall in the sterling exchange value of the local dollar which prompt the proposed amendment in the Pension law.
5. The new proviso added to section 8 of the principal Ordinance by clause 2 of the Bill gives the effect of sections 2 and 3 of the Nigerian Ordinance No. 11 of 1932, legislation on the lines of which making provision for such voluntary retirements within a period not exceeding two years was authorised by the Secretary of State's telegram of the 4th June, 1936.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.