THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 8TH MAY, 1897.
Objects and Reasons.
Although, with a view to emergencies, it is requisite that the Governor in Council should retain the power at present possessed of requiring Chinese who are out at night to be provided with Passes under The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, 1888, it is thought desirable so to modify section 30 of that Ordinance as to admit of the relaxation of such requirement when it seems to His Excellency that Night Passes may be dispensed with without prejudice to the safety and well-being of the Community.
At present, section 30 of Ordinance 13 of 1888 requires such Passes between 9 p.m. and sunrise, unless other hours are fixed by Order in Council.
The effect of repealing section 30 and substituting the new section will be that Night Passes will only be compul- sory when they are required by Order of the Governor in Council, published in the Gazette, and then, only between such hours of the night as may be fixed by such Order. In the absence of such Order, they will not be required at all.
W. MEIGH GOODMAN, Attorney General.
A BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to provide for the punishment of Stowaways arriving in this Colony.
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 Stowaways Short title. Ordinance, 1897.
2. Any person arriving in this Colony on board any Penalty on British or Foreign Sea-going Ship who, by secreting himself Stowaways on board, or getting or remaining on board, without the arriving in Hongkong. consent of either the owner, consignee, or master, or of a mate, or of the person in charge of the ship, or of any other persou cutitled to give that consent, has obtained a passage without having paid for the same, shall be deemed to be a Stowaway, and shall, upon summary conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding one month.
3 The onus of proving the consent of the owner or Onus of proof other person, as aforesaid, shall lie upon the accused.
of consent.
4. The detention of a stowaway shall not be deemed Detention illegal, if for no longer period than is reasonably necessary for the purpose of handing such person over to the Police, and the Police may apprehend such Stowaway without a
warrant.
Objects and Reasons.
The Vagraney Law renders those who bring destitute people to this Colony liablo, in certain cases, to repay the expense thereby incurred by the Colony in the maintenance, etc. of such people.
Where passage money or even part passage money has been paid for such destitutes, or where, out of compassion, a passage has been given, it is obviously just that those who knowingly import into the Colony persons who have no means of subsistence should not be allowed to put the com- munity to the cost of maintaining them.
Where, however, such destitutes come as stowaways, against the consent of those in charge of the ship, and no passage money or compensation is paid, it seems fair that means should be provided by which the stowaway can be punished and the master of the ship be protected.
This Ordinance is intended to provide such means, The Imperial Merchant Shipping Act 1894, section 237, does not apply to Foreign Ships, and Stowaways are brought to Hongkong in Foreign Ships as well as in British Ships.
The River Steamers Ordinance (No. 18 of 1895) and Ordinance 22 of 1890 have provided efficacious remedies in cases coming within their respective limits, and it is trusted that the prescut Ordinance will prove as useful, in cases where passages have been unlawfully obtained, as Ordinance 22 of 1890 has been in preventing attempts by Chinese to obtain such passages from Hongkong.
W. MEIGH GOODMAN,
Attorney General,
and appre- lension of Stowaways.
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