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I hereby certify that I have explained and registered the above passage
ticket.
Victoria, Hongkong, the
day of
(Sigued.)
1
>
Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
Note.-Should the above-named ship not be able to proceed on the proposed voyage, a passage is to be provided in some other vessel licensed for the conveyance of Asiatic passengers.
Objects and Reasons.
This Bill should, it is proposed, repeal and supersede the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances.
There are many circumstances connected with Chineso Emigration which, although important at the time of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, are now not of practical consequence; there have been also since the date of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, great changes in the conditions under which Asiatic Emigration is permitted from places or in vessels under British control.
The scheme of this Bill is to endeavour to simplify and compress the rather disconnected provisions of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances ; to connect it more sharply and clearly with its mother Act (The Chinese Passengers Act, 1855), to omit such portions as seem to be at the present day obsolete, unnecessary or forbidden and to bring it up to stage of modern requirements.
It is difficult, therefore, owing to the much nitered features of the Bill when it is compared with those of the existing Ordinances to give a tabulated comparison which may be of complete service without entering into a great mass of detail.
A general summary of the Bill itself and a general comparative analysis of its divergences from the existing Law seems at any rate desirable. The present Bill is divided into the following parts :-
Part I, Preliminary Provisions.
1
II, Provisions relating to ships carrying
emigrants.
III, Provisions relating to emigrauts:-
(a) Medical Inspection.
(b) Provisions relating to l'assage Brokers.
(c.) Provisions as to Emigration Boarding
Houses.
Part IV, Penal Provisions.
V, Miscellaneons.
Part I. Preliminary Provisions.-The preliminary pro- visions consist of “definitions" and "explanatory chuses" indicating where departure has been made from the pro- visions of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, and contain certain exemptions from the provisions of the Act in cases in which Asiatic passengers who cannot be classified pro- perly as emigrants are being carried.
Part II. Provisions relating to Ships carrying Emi- -grants.--The general scheme of this Part of the Bill is that all ships to which the Bill applies must be possessed of some form of Licence, Licences are in the Bill divided into three classes designated as "General", "Outport” and "Special".
The
Outport" licenco is that capable of being granted by an Emigration Officer to a ship about to proceed with einigrants from a port outside the Colony.