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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 25TH OCTOBER, 1890.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 446.
The following Circular Despatch with its enclosures is published for general information.
By Command,
W. M. DEANE, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 25th October, 1890.
DOWNING STREET,
25th August, 1890.
CIRCULAR.
SIR,-I have the honour to transmit, herewith, for publication in the Colony under your Govern- ment, a copy of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Victoria; Chapter 37), to which I think it right to draw your attention, as some of its provisions bear upon Colonial matters.
For the convenience of your Government I also enclose a copy of an explanatory Memorandum by the Parliamentary Counsel.
I have the honour to be,
The Officer Administering the Government of
HONGKONG.
Sir,
Your most obedient, humble Servant,
KNUTSFORD.
Foreign Jurisdiction Consolidation Bill.
MEMORANDUM.
The object of this Bill is to consolidate the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts with such amendments only as are necessarily incidental to the process of consolidation. The amendments appear from the following notes.
Section 4.
The words "or held under the authority of Her Majesty" are added to include courts established under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts.
Section 5.
The Evidence by Commission Act, 1885, has been added to the Acts comprised in the schedule to the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1878, as being an enactment amending the Acts in that schedule.
Section 6.
Words have been added giving power expression "supreme criminal court."
to define by Order in Council what is meant by the
Section 7.
In consequence of the alteration of the law with respect to penal servitude, sections 5 and 6 of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1843, cannot be exactly reproduced. The new section reproduces in substance the power given by those sections of removing offenders for punishment, but substitutes the machinery provided by the more recent Colonial Prisoners' Removal Act of 1869.
Section 12.
This section sets out the provisions of 28 & 29 Vict. c. 63 instead of applying them by reference.
Sections 17. 18.
The Acts 24 & 25 Vict. c. 31, as to territories near Sierra Leone, and 26 & 27 Vict. c. 35, as to certain portions of South Africa, are practically superseded by section 5 of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 67), which would extend to the whole of Africa and not merely to the limited portions mentioned in the above Acts. Accordingly an Order in Council could at any time supersede the provisions of those Acts. The Act 20 & 21 Vict. c. 75, as to Siam would have been unnecessary if the Order in Council to which it referred had been made since the passing of the later Act 29 & 30 Vict. c. 87. s. 1 (reproduced by section 9). The amending Act 33 & 34 Vict. c. 55, merely declared what court was to exercise jurisdiction under the previous Order in Council. This might now be done by a supplemental Order in Council. Accordingly it is proposed to repeal all these Acts as Acts, but to leave them in force as if they were Orders in Council issued under the present Bill.
A precedent for this course may be found in 37 & 38 Vict. c. 29 s. 3.
Sections 6 and 7 of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1875, (38 & 39 Vict. c. 51), are in much the same position, but as the powers given by section 6 were mostly to be exercised by Orders in Council, slightly different language is required.