THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 1ST AUGUST, 1874.
CHAPTER VI.
BOARDING-HOUSES FOR SEAMEN.
XIV. The Harbour Master shall, with the consent of any As to the es- Police Magistrate, have power to license a sufficient number tablishment
and regulation of fit and proper persons to keep boarding-houses for seamen, of boarding- and every such licence shall be countersigned by the Colonial houses. Secretary, and shall be granted for such period not exceeding one [Ordinance year, and upon such terms and security, and shall be renewable No. 6 of 1852,
sec. 6.] upon such conditions, as the Colonial Secretary may appoint; and it shall be lawful for the Colonial Secretary to demand for every such licence an annual fee of twenty-five dollars, or at the rate thereof according to the term of such licence; and every such house shall be for the reception of such number of seamen only as shall be expressed in the licence, and shall not be granted until there have been constructed in the house to be licensed suitable rooms to be approved by the Harbour Master; and no such boarding-house shall be a house licensed for the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, nor shall any charge for spirituous or fer- mented liquor be allowed in any account for the amount of which any seaman may be indebted, or stated to be indebted, to any person, and such boarding-house shall not be a part of a house, and shall be separated by at least one intervening house on either side of it from any house licensed for such sale as aforesaid; and every such boarding-house shall be open at all times to the visit of any Magistrate, or of the Harbour Master, or of any Constable specially appointed for the general service of visiting such houses. And the Harbour Master may refuse to grant any such licence, and may limit the number and description of seamen to be boarded in each house, and may make rules for the government of such houses, and regulate the charge to be made for board and lodging; and a copy of such rules shall be hung up in each house for the inspection of the inmates; and the infrac- tion of any one of such rules shall subject the offender in every instance to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five dollars, and for a second offence may deprive the offender, if the keeper of such house, of his licence as an additional punishment.
and
licensed board-
2. If any person not having obtained a licence for keeping Penalty for a boarding-house for seamen shall keep one, he shall be liable to a keeping an un- penalty not exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars; ing-house. the fact of more than one seaman boarding or lodging in the [Ibid, sec.87.] house of any person, shall be prima facie proof of the keeping of a boarding-house for seamen by such person; but nothing in this Ordinance contained shall be construed to prevent any sea- man from having the whole or any part of any unfurnished house for the residence of himself, or his family, and boarding himself therein.
3. Every keeper of a boarding-house for seamen shall cause Duties of daily to be entered in a book in English, the name and des- boarding-
house keepers cription of each additional seaman who has, on that day, come with respect to to board or lodge at his house, and the name of each seaman lists, returns, who has left his house on that day after being a lodger or &c., &c. of boarder therein, and such other particulars as the Harbour their inmates, Master may direct; and every keeper of a boarding-house shall, [Ibid, sec. 8.} on the morning of Monday, in each week, send to the Harbour Master's office a list, copied from his book, of the seamen on that boarders. day boarding or lodging in his house, and of those seamen, or lodgers, who left his house on any or either of the intermediate days, and shall also particularize in such list, those seamen who wish for immediate employment, and place opposite to the names of those last named, the names of the ships from which they were last discharged; and the Harbour Master shall keep the lists so furnished to him constantly in view, and in a conspicuous part of his office, for the convenience of masters of ships requiring men, and shall also post in a similar manner, if required so to do, such notices for the supply of men by masters of ships as the said masters shall furnish.
4. Nothing in this section contained shall prevent masters, Masters and mates, or engineers of ships from boarding or lodging elsewhere mates may than at a licensed boarding-house.
board and lodge elsewhere, thar in such houses. [Ibid, sec. 9.]
shall, during
5. No seaman who shall have been actually shipped by the No seaman Harbour Master, or his deputy, on board any vessel in compliance shipped under with this section, shall, during the time for which he is then this section shipped, be liable to be arrested on civil process, unless the debt the term for or demand shall exceed the sum of five hundred dollars: Pro- which he is vided always, that by the term seaman in this paragraph shall be shipped, be
liable to arrest meant only a person who has within the space of one year pre-
on civil pro- viously served on board a ship for wages as a seaman, and that cess, in cer- the protection from arrest hereby granted shall not be held to tain cases.
[Ibid, sec. 10.} extend to any person not coming within such definition.
349