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Interpretation of terms.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 5TH FEBRUARY, 1898.
48 Vict., 25, s. 3, with addition.
Labourers not to
South of South latitude,
3. IN this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
Labourer means any male person apparently a native of India, China, or Africa, or of the Islands of the Indian or Pacific Oceans, or of the Malayan Archipelago, and brought into the Colony as a labourer or servant, or for any other similar employment.
Employer" includes every person at whose request or on whose behalf a labourer is brought into the Colony, and every person employing a labourer within the Colony, and the personal representative and the agent of any such person.
"Vessel" includes any ship or boat.
"Master" includes any person for the time being in command or charge of a
vessel.
66
Magistrate" means a Government Resident, or a Resident Magistrate, or a Police Magistrate, or any person lawfully acting as such, but it does not include any other Justice of the Peace.
4. NO labourer brought into Western Australia under this Act, or who has already enter part of W. been so brought under the Act repealed by this Act, or under the Imported Labour Registry Act, 1882, shall enter by land or sea into any part of this Colony South of the twenty-seventh parallel of South latitude, except as hereinafter provided; but nothing in this section shall affect any such labourer who shall be, at the time of the passing of this Act, within the said Colony South of the said parallel.
Penalty.
Labourer not to be
Every labourer who, whether wilfully or not, contravenes this section shall be liable to be conveyed out of this Colony as provided by this Act, and every labourer who wilfully contravenes this section shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment with hard labour for not exceeding six months; provided that such imprisonment may cease for the purpose of the offender being conveyed out of the Colony as provided by this Act, or if he shall find approved sureties to the aggregate amount of One hundred pounds for his leaving the Colony within one month.
5. NO labourer shall be imported or brought into the Colony by any person appa- imported by Asiatic, rently a native of India, China, or Africa, or of the Islands of the Indian or Pacific Oceans,
or of the Malayan Archipelago.
African, or Poly-
nesian.
Only one labourer
to be imported for
every 500 tons of
6. LABOURERS shall not be imported into Western Australia in or landed from any ship in a greater number than one labourer for every Five hundred tons of the ship's the ship's capacity. capacity; the tonnage, in the case of a British ship, being taken as the registered tonnage, and, in the case of a foreign ship, being measured according to the rules of measurement provided in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
Penalty for assist- ing labourer to enter W.A., or having entered to go South of 27°.
Liability of master
7. EVERY person who-
Wilfully assist any labourer to enter Western Australia in contravention of
this Act; or
Wilfully assists any labourer, being already in Western Australia, to enter that part thereof which is South of the twenty-seventh parallel of South latitude, shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding One hundred pounds for each labourer so assisted, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding twelve months.
8. THE master and owners of every vessel from which any labourer is landed in and owners of vessel Western Australia, in contravention of this Act, shall be jointly and severally liable in a
penalty of One hundred pounds for each labourer so landed.
for illegal landing of labourers.
Contract for carry- ing away labourers
The vessel may be arrested and sold by order of the Supreme Court in satisfaction of any such penalty, or may be refused a clearance outward until such penalty has been paid, and until provision has been made by the master or owners to the satisfaction of an officer appointed under this Act for the conveyance out of the Colony of each labourer who has been so landed.
9. AN officer thereto authorised by the Governor may make a contract with the contravening Act. master, owners, or agent of any vessel for the conveyance of any labourer who is found to be in Western Australia, or any part thereof, in contravention of this Act, to a port in or near to such labourer's country of birth, or in or near to the place from which he set out for Western Australia; and every such labourer, with his personal effects, may be placed by a police officer on board such vessel, and shall, in such case, if destitute, be supplied with a sufficient sum of money to enable him to live for one month according to his circumstances in life after disembarking from such vessel.