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Contract tickets for passages.
Passage brokers to produce to Emigration Officer certificate that they have chartered the ship for carrying emigrants.
Passage broker to attend before Emigration Officer for the purpose of delivering the contract tickets to passengers.
Contract tickets not to be altered, Agents not to act without written authority, and to produce their authority on demand.
Penalties for offences.
1. Against sec. 1.
2. Against sec. 5.
ORDINANCE No. 11 OF 1857.
Emigration Passage Brokers.
5. Every passage broker who shall or may receive money from any person, for or in respect of a passage in any emigrant ship, shall give to every such person a contract ticket, under the hand of such passage broker, and stamped with his seal or trade mark, each ticket to be printed in a plain and legible type, according to the form in the schedule D, hereunto annexed, and to be accompanied with a translation thereof in the Chinese language, in plain and legible characters.
6. Every such passage broker before he shall receive or take any money on account of any such passage, or for the sale or letting of the whole or any part of the accommodation of or in any emigrant ship proceeding from Hongkong, shall produce, to the Emigration Officer the certificate of the master or owner of the ship, in respect of which such passage shall or may have been taken, or the accommodation in which shall have been so sold or let, to the effect, that such ship has been chartered for the purpose of carrying emigrants, and that he, such passage broker, is authorized to receive payment for such passage, or for the sale or letting of the accommodation in such ship; and such certificate shall be filed in the office of the Emigration Officer, and the contents thereof entered in a book to be kept by the Emigration Officer, for recording therein the contents of such certificates.
7. On every occasion of the delivery to any passenger of such contract ticket as aforesaid, the passage broker who shall have engaged to provide such passenger with a passage shall attend with him at the office of the Emigration Officer, in whose presence the contract ticket shall be delivered to such passenger, and who shall explain to him the true intent and meaning of such contract.
8. No person shall fraudulently alter or cause to be altered, after it is once issued, or shall induce any person to part with or render useless or destroy any such contract ticket, during the continuance of the contract which it is intended to evidence.
9. No licensed passage broker shall, as agent for any person, whether a licensed broker or not, receive money for or on account of the passage of any passenger on board an emigrant ship, without having a written authority to act as such agent, or on the demand of the Emigration Officer, refuse or fail to exhibit his licence and such written authority: and no person whether as principal or agent shall, by any fraud, or by false representation as to the size of the ship or otherwise, or by any false pretence whatsoever, induce any person to engage any passage as aforesaid.
10. All violations or disobediences of, or defaults in compliance with, the provisions of this Ordinance, shall be heard and determined summarily under Ordinance No. 10 of 1844; and on conviction of such offences, the respective offenders shall be sentenced to pay the several penalties, or in default of the payment thereof, to suffer the several terms of imprisonment respectively hereinafter specified.
1. For every offence against section 1, a fine not exceeding four hundred current dollars, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.
2. For every offence against section 5, a fine not exceeding fifty current dollars, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six weeks.