VIII.
LEGISLATION.
During 1950 thirty-seven Ordinances were enacted and certain provisions of the Emergency (Principal) Regulations, 1949, made under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, 1922, were brought into force. The legislation of the year has, in the main, been of an amending character designed to meet the requirements of general law revision. That work, which started in 1948, has proceeded as expeditiously as circumstances have permitted, and it is expected that the revised edition of the laws of the Colony, to be styled the Revised Edition, 1950, will be completed and in force early in 1951. Important examples of legislation enacted in furtherance of this objective were the Law Revision (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinances (Ordinances 9 and 24 of 1950), which effected amendment respectively to 52 and 77 distinct Ordinances. Another measure
having a similar purpose was the Law Reform (Penalties Amend- ment) Ordinance, 1950, which amended simultaneously eighty-five Ordinances enacted between the years 1865 and 1940 for the main purpose of increasing maximum money penalties which had become inadequate or inappropriate to modern conditions.
The Interpretation Ordinance, 1950, was also enacted to repeal and replace the Interpretation Ordinance, 1911, which had itself frequently been amended during the intervening forty years. The new Ordinance effected a consolidation while reflecting, in definitions, the constitutional changes which have taken place within the Empire, and the many changes in terminology and in interpretation of expressions which have occurred over that period.
Persistent incidence of rabies in the Colony called for a review of the legislation available to assist the control and prevention of this disease. The Dogs Ordinance, 1927, which was a short Ordin- ance giving rather limited power to make regulations, was con- sequently repealed and the Dogs and Cats Ordinance, 1950, enacted. This Ordinance extended the ambit of control to cats because they also are liable to rabies. The Ordinance also increased the power to make regulations and conferred powers of search upon police officers, officers of the Sanitary Department and certain other authorized officers in the event of suspected contravention of the Ordinance and regulations made under it.
In 1949 the deportation of aliens sent to prison for specified terms or for specified offences was, subject to safeguards, rendered automatic by an amendment to the Deportation of Aliens Ordinance,
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