1029
A BILL
[No. 31-17.10.40.-1.1
INTITULED
An Ordinance to amend further the Advertisements Regula-
tion Ordinance, 1912.
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 Advertisements Short title. Regulation (No. 2) Amendment Ordinance, 1940.
of Ordinance
2. Sub-section (4) of section 5 of the Advertisements Repeal of Regulation Ordinance, 1912, enacted by section 3 of the section 5 (4) Advertisements Regulation Amendment Ordinance, 1940, is No. 19 of repealed.
1912 enacted by Ordinance No. 16 of 1940, s. 3.
Objects and Reasons.
1. Section 5 of the principal Advertisements Regulation Ordinance, No. 19 of 1912, as it appears in Volumn II of the 1937 edition of the Ordinances of Hong Kong gave certain powers to the Director of Public Works and the Commis- sioner of Police, and their authorized deputies, with regard to the removal or obliteration of illegal advertisements and sky signs.
2. Sub-section (4) of that section provided that the Director of Public Works, the Commissioner of Police and any person so authorized or deputed by either of them as aforesaid should not be held liable for any damage done by him in the course of the removal or obliteration of any adver- tisement in pursuance of that section.
3. The Amending Ordinance, No. 16 of 1940, repealed the whole section and enacted another generally to the same effect but substituting the Chairman of the Urban Council for the Director of Public Works and the Commissioner of Police.
4. While there is no objection to the transfer of duties and powers under the Ordinance from the head of one department to the head of another, sub-section (4) of section 5 is both in its original and in its substituted form open to the objection, which has been pointed out by the Secretary of State in his despatch of the 15th August, 1940, relating to the Amending Ordinance, that it is generally undesirable to include in legislation enactments which negative or restrict normal rights of action against public officers or public bodies such as the right of action which a private person may have in respect of an illegal or negligent act.
5. The object therefore of this amending Bill is to repeal the sub-section.
October, 1940.
C. G. ALABASTER.
Attorney General.