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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
Draft Bill.
No. S. 607.-The following Bill is published for general information:-
Short title.
Amendment of long title of
Ordinance No. 9 of 1897.
New para- graph (d) added to Ordinance No. 9 of 1897, s. 2.
New section 24A inserted in Ordinance
No. 9 of 1897.
[No. 44: -27.10.39.—1.]
A BILL
INTITULED
An Ordinance to amend the Vagrancy Ordinance, 1897.
BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Vagrancy Amend- ment Ordinance, 1939.
amended
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2. The long title of the Vagrancy Ordinance, 1897,
the addition of the words destitutes and after the word vagrants" at the end
mendicants thereof.
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3. Section 2 of the Vagrancy Ordinance, 1897, amended by the addition of the following paragraph at the end thereof-
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(d) Destitute means any person who is, or is likely to be, a charge upon public funds or private charity by reason of mental or bodily ill-health or insufficiency of means to support himself and his dependants (if any).
4. The Vagrancy Ordinance, 1897, is amended by the insertion of the following new section after section 24 thereof :-
24A.-(1) Any police officer may require any person who is apparently a mendicant or a destitute to accompany him or any other police officer to, and to appear before, a magistrate.
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(2) The magistrate shall, in such case, and may in any other case where a person apparently a mendicant or a destitute comes before him, make a summary inquiry into his circumstances and, if satisfied that he is a mendicant or destitute and that he is unable to prove either that he is or has the status of a British subject or that he has been ordinarily resident in the Colony for a period of seven years or more, may if he thinks fit declare him to be a mendicant or destitute to whom this section of this Ordinance applies and order him to be expelled from the Colony. Such order may be made in lieu of or in addition to any conviction or sentence under section 26, 28A or 29.
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