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(2) that the innkeeper, after having, out of the pro- ceeds of the sale, paid himself the amount of the indebtedness together with the costs and expenses of the sale, shall on demand pay to the person depositing or leaving such property the surpius (if any) remaining after such sale. (3) that the debt for the payment of which a sale is made shall not be any other or greater debt than the debt for which the property could have been retained by the innkeeper under his lien.
(4) that, in the case of perishable property, as soon as conveniently may be either before or after the sale, and in the case of other property at least one month before any such sale the inn- keeper shall cause to be inserted in a news- paper circulating in the Colony an advertise- ment containing a notice or notification of such sale and giving shortly a description of the property sold or intended to be sold together with the name of the owner or person who de- posited or left the same where known.
Objects and Reasons,
This Bill introduces into the Colony, with some modi- fications and additions, notably the immediate right of sale in the case of perishable goods, the provisions of the Inn- keepers Act 1878 which gave an Innkeeper a right of sell- ing, under certain conditions, goods which had become the subject of his common law right of lien.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
A BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to amend further the Magistrates
Ordinance, 1890.
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 Magistrates Short title. Further Amendment Ordinance, 1912.
2. Section 85 of the Magistrates Ordinance, 1890, is Amends hereby amended by the insertion therein after the words section 85 of woman or child" of the words ", or under section 52 of Ordinance
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the Offences against the Person Ordinance, 1865, of commit- No. 3 of 1890, ing an act of gross indecency with another male person under the age of thirteen, or under section 7 of the Protec- tion of Women and Girls Ordinance, 1897, of committing an indecent assault upon a girl under the age of thirteen,
Objects and Reasons.
►
The Magistrates can already under section 85 of Ordin- ance No. 3 of 1890 punish with flogging those who steal ornaments and other chattels from the person of any woman or child. They cannot however award this form of punish- ment in the case of indecent assault, although under Ordin- ance No. 3 of 1903 the Supreme Court can do so. Indecent assault is an indictable offence; but in many cases, in fact in most cases, where the sufferer is a child, the parents ask for the case to be dealt with summarily in order that the greater publicity of the Assize Court may be avoided. Where the Magistrate assents to this course being adopted it is perhaps proper that the term of imprisonment should be less than that which the Supreme Court would award, but there does not seem to be as much reason for saving the offender from the corporal punishment which the Legislature in passing the Flogging Ordinance clearly considered fitting for this particularly atrocious offence.
C. G. ALABASTER, Attorney General.