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Hospital accom-modation to be provided and properly fitted up. Space for hos-pital to be inclu-de in measure-ment of capa-city for passen-gers. Passengers and crew to be Exu-mined beforo sailing, by some medical practi-tioner. Certificate not to be granted unless the pro-visions hereof shall have been complied with.
ORDINANCE No. 6 of 1859. Chinese Passenger Ships.
view to the better securing the health of passengers therein: Be it enacted and ordained, by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice of the Legis-lative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. In every Chinese passenger ship there shall be a sufficient space properly divided off to the satisfaction of the Emigration Officer at the port of clearance, to be used exclusively as a hospital or sick bay for the passengers; this space shall be either under the poop, or in the round-house, or in any deck-house which shall be properly built and secured to the satisfaction of such Emigration Officer, or on the upper pas-senger deck, and not elsewhere, and shall in no case be of less dimensions than eigh-teen clear superficial feet for every fifty passengers which the ship shall carry. Such hospitals shall be fitted with bed places, and supplied with proper beds, bedding, and utensils, to the satisfaction of the Emigration Officer at the port of clearance, and shall throughout the voyage be kept so fitted and supplied.
2. In the measurement of the passenger decks, for the purpose of determining the number of passengers to be carried in any Chinese passenger ship, the space for the hospital shall be included.
3. No Chinese passenger ship shall clear out or proceed to sea on any voyage of more than seven days' duration, until some medical practitioner shall have certified to the Emigration Officer, and the said Emigration Officer shall be satisfied, that none of the passengers or crew appear, by reason of any bodily or mental disease, unfit to proceed or likely to endanger the health or safety of other persons about to proceed in such vessel; and a medical inspection of the passengers for the purposes of giving such certificate shall take place either on board the vessel, or, at the discretion of the said Emigration Officer, at such convenient place on shore, before embarkation, as he may appoint; and the master, owner, or charterer of the ship, shall pay to such medi-cal practitioner a sum at the rate of twenty-five current dollars, for every hundred persons so examined: Provided, that in case the Emigration Officer on any particular occasion shall be unable to obtain such certificate as aforesaid, or the attendance of a medical practitioner within a reasonable time, or without payment of an inspection fee at a higher rate than that hereby ordained, then it shall be lawful for the said Emigration Officer to dispense with such medical inspection as aforesaid, and to sa-tisfy himself by his own personal examination, (for which he shall receive the fee hereinbefore ordained to be paid,) of the fit sanitary state of the crew and passengers: Provided also, that all fees received under this section by the Emigration Officer, or Colonial Surgeon of Hongkong, shall be, within three days after the receipt thereof, paid over by the officer receiving them into the Treasury, to the use of the Crown.
4. No Emigration Officer shall give the certificate required by the "Chinese Pas-sengers' Act, 1855," in respect of any Chinese passenger ship, unless he be satisfied as aforesaid with the hospital accommodation in such ship provided, and with the sanitary state of the crew and passengers thereto belonging.