20
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
No. S. 15.-The following Bills were read a first time at a Meeting of the Council held on the 21st January, 1915:—
Short title.
Governor-in- Council to have power to allow stamping
after execu- tion.
Amendment
A BILL
INTITULED
An Ordinance to amend the Stamp Ordinance,
1901.
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 Stamp Ordi- nauce, 1915, and shall be read and construed as one with the Stamp Ordinance, 1901, liereinafter called the Principal Ordinance, and with the Stamp Ordinance, 1914.
nance
2. Notwithstanding anything in the Principal Ordi- contained, the Goverdor-in-Council shall have power, in any special case in which the circumstances may appear to him to be sufficiently exceptional, to authorise the Collector to stamp after execution any document what- soever liable to stamp duty under the Principal Ordinance or any Ordinance amending the same, either without pay- ment of any penalty or subject to the following penal- ties
(a.) if within one month of execution, double the
amount of deficient duty;
(b.) if within two months of execution, four times
the amount of deficient duty; and
(c.) if after two months after execution, ten times
the amount of deficient duty.
3. Section 31 of the Principal Ordinance is hereby
of Ordinance amended by the repeal of the words "or without the con- No. 16 of
sent of the Attorney General ".
1901, s. 31.
Objects and Reasons.
The main object of this Bill is to give the Governor-in- Council power in exceptional circumstances to authorise the stamping after execution of documents which cannot be stamped after execution under the existing law.
It also provides that the consent of the Attorney General shall no longer be necessary to prosecutions under the Stamp Ordinance. The requirement of this consent dates back in the Hongkong Ordinance to the year 1866, and no similar provision in known to exist in England in connec- tion with the Stamp Acts,
J. H. KEMP,
Attorney General,
Short title.
A BILL
INTITULED
An Ordinance to remove doubts as to the power of the Governor to appoint Deputy Official Receivers and as to the validity of the acts of persons appointed to be Deputy Official Receivers or to act as Deputy Official Re- ceivers or attached to the office of the Official Receiver before the commencement of this Ordinance.
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 Bankruptcy Ordinance, 1915, and shall be read and construed as one with the Bankruptcy Ordinance, 1891.
į