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4. The effect of this Bill will be to raise the penalty under sections 12 and 14 of the principal Ordinance to the same maximum as that provided in section 10 thereof.
5. Counterfeiters in the Colony seem to concentrate their energies on the production of spurious ten cent pieces.
6. The older issues of genuine ten cent pieces, as specified in the Third Schedule to the Hongkong (Coinage) Order, 1895, were silver coins. The new issue under Proclamation No. 4 of the 9th November, 1935, is of cupro-nickel.
7. For the purposes of Ordinance No. 7 of 1865, as amended by section 3 (2) (a) of Oridnance No. 20 of 1936, the older issues are classed as silver coin and the new issue is classed as copper coin, with the result that the penalty varies with the issue of ten cent pieces which is counterfeited.
8. The object of this Bill is to correct that anomaly and to render offenders against sections 12 and 14 of the principal Ordinance liable to the heavier penalty already imposed on offenders against section 10. It is felt that such heavier penalties are necessary and it is hoped that they will serve as a deterrent.
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August, 1936.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.