THE
dangdong
Government
GAZETTE.
NEW SERIES.
VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 24ти SEPTEMBER, 1859.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
VOL. V. No. 227.
The Contract for publishing this Gazette, entered into on the 24th September, 1853, was terminated on the 30th ultimo; and notice is hereby given that a NEW SERIES of this Gazette will be published hereafter, to commence from the 7th instant, under a New Contract, and that
“THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE"
, as before, be the only Official Organ for PROCLAMATIONS, NOTIFICATIONS, and PUBLIC PAPERS, of this Government.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2d July, 1855.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 6 of 1859.
WEDNESDAY, 18th MAY, 1859.
PRESENT:
HIS EXCELLENCY THE ACTING GOVERNOR AND ALL THE MEMBERS, EXCEPT THE AUDITOR-GENERAL,
MR LYALL, AND MR DENT.
Excellency SIR JOHN BOWRING having directed, on the 30th ultimo, that the Meeting of the Council which stood adjourned to the 2d instant, should be postponed till further notice,-The Council was summoned for yesterday, the 17th instant, at Noon, by order of His Excellency The Acting Governor; but it appearing at the expiration of the time allowed by the 5th Rule of the Standing Orders, that the number of Members present on the occasion was insufficient to form a Quorum, the Council stood adjourned to this day, and met accordingly, pursuant to Notice sent round to Members at half-past 10 A.M., as ordered by the Acting Governor. e Minutes of the Council held on the 21st April, were read and approved.
His Excellency The Acting Governor laid on the Table the following Petition, received through the Clerk of
Councils, on the 23d of April :-
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
The Humble Petition of WILLIAM THOMAS BRIDGES, Doctor of Civil Law, Barrister-at-Law, and Practitioner-in-Law, in the Colony of Hongkong.
SHEWETH,-
That your Petitioner has been informed that Ordinance 12 of 1858 is under consideration for its amendment at the present time before your Excellency in Council.
That it appears to your Petitioner, that a great hardship has been inflicted upon your Petitioner and other Barristers-at-Law, acting as local Practitioners-in-Law, by the Third Section of such Ordinance.
That such hardship consists in this, that whereas all other distinctions between Barristers and Solicitors are done away with, one is yet preserved, which admits of any number of Solicitors or Attornies being in partnership together, but denies the same right to such Practitioners in Law as are Barristers in the mother-country.
That an injury is thereby inflicted both on the practitioner, and on the client, inasmuch as the Barrister-practitioner is ampeled on absenting himself from the Colony for health or a visit to the mother-country, to break up altogether a business con- nction which it may have been the labour of years to bring together, whereas the interests of the Solicitor-practitioner can be Janked after by the remaining partner or partners; and the interests of the client are also similarly affected, as those who employ Barristers as their legal advisers must necessarily be compelled to transfer all their matters in hand to strangers, instead of con- tinuing it in the same office under the superintendence of the locum tenens or successor of their original Counsel.
That your Petitioner confidently submits that no valid reason whatsoever can be adduced for making any distinction in this re-peer between either class of legal Practitioners in this Colony, and as undoubted advantages have already resulted from the whalgamation of the two be inches of the profession, it is but fair and reasonable all restrictions upon that amalgamation should be done away with, unless valid and existing reasons can be shewn to the contrary.
Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays your Excellency.in Council to repeal the whole or so much of the Third Section of Ordinance 12 of 1858, as 19 your Excellency and the Legislative Council shall seen meet,
» And your Petitioner, &c.,
the same having beca read,——
(Signed)
WILLIAM T. BRIDGES.
was moved by the Acting Chief Justice, and seconded by the Colonial Secretary,that the said Petition do lie
ou the Table.