+
330
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
No. S. 177.-The following Bill was read a first time at a Meeting of the Council held on the 6th June, 1912 :-
A BILL
Short title.
Control of Aviators.
Repeal.
ENTITLED>
An Ordinance to regulate the ascents, descents and flights of balloons, airships, aeroplanes and parachutes.
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as Follows:---
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Airships Ordi- nance, 1912.
2. (1.) It shall not be lawful for any person to make an ascent in a balloon, whether dirigible or otherwise, or in an airship or acroplane without having previously obtained the permission in writing of the Governor.
(2.) It shall not be lawful for any person having ascended elsewhere in a balloon, whether dirigible or other- wise, or in an airship or aeroplane to make any flight over or above any portion of the Colony or of the waters of the Colony or to descend thereby or by means of any parachute or other contrivance without having previously obtained the permission in writing of the Governor.
(3.) Any permission given under this section may be issued subject to any conditions, which shall be specified in the written permission, that the Governor may think fit to impose.
(4.) Every person who contravenes the provisions of this section or who contravenes any of the conditions afore- said shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 500 dollars or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 3 mouths and to the forfeiture of any photographs, negatives, photographic apparatus, sketches, sketching materials, maps and plans not expressly author- ised in any such written permission as aforesaid which in the opinion of the Magistrate appear to have been carried by the offender during any ascent from or flight over or - above or descent to any portion of the Colony or the waters thereof.
3. Section 8 of the Defences (Sketching Prevention) Ordinance, 1895, is hereby repealed.
Objects and Reasons,
"AH
Section 8 of Ordinance No. 2 of 1895 as amended by section 4 of Ordinance No. 3 of 1911 contained certain regulations for the control of aviators which was justified by the full title of the latter ().dinance namely Ordinance to amend The Defences (Sketching Preven- tion) Ordinance, 1895, and to control balloonists and others who have special opportunities for obtaining in- formation respecting the defences of the Colony "." As the latter part of this full title will disappear with the incorporation of Ordinance No. 3 of 1911 in Ordinance No. 2 of 1895 in the New Revised Edition, and as the relation of aviation to the defences of the Colony (required by Article XXI (3) of the Royal Instructions) will therefore become somewhat obscured, and as the recent development of the aeroplane industry has rendered practicable flights from neighbouring countries to and over the Colony and its waters, it seems desirable that all regulations respecting aviation should be grouped together in a fresh Ordinance relating to that subject alone.
C. G. ALABASTER, Attorney General.
པ