VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 7 OF 1876.
WEDNESDAY, 26TH APRIL, 1876.
PRESENT:
The Honourable the Chief Justice (SIR JOHN SMALE).
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary (JOHN GARDINER AUSTIN, C.M.G.). The Honourable the Attorney General (JOHN BRAMSTON).
The Honourable the Acting Colonial Treasurer (CHARLES MAY).
The Honourable PHINEAS RYRIE.
The Honourable HENRY LOWCOCK.
The Honourable WILLIAM KESWICK.
ABSENT:
His Excellency the Governor SIR ARTHUR EDWARD KENNEDY, K.C.M.G.,C.B., from indisposition. The Council meets this day at 2.30 P.M., pursuant to adjournment.
The Minutes of the previous Meeting of Council are read and confirmed. The Council then proceeds with the consideration of the Bill to amend the Law relating to Chinese Passenger Ships and the Conveyance of Chinese Emigrants.
The Bill is discussed clause by clause.
At the end of the 5th Clause, the Honourable the Attorney General begs leave to read the subjoined printed detached clause, which had already been circulated amongst Honourable Members, and which deals with the case of Mail Steamers carrying Chinese Passengers, and moves – That the printed detached clause stand Paragraph 6 of the 2nd Section.
The Governor in Council may also, at his discretion, grant a special licence for any period, or for any number of voyages, to any steamer which is regularly employed in the conveyance of the public mails under an existing contract with the Government of the State or Colony to which such steamer belongs.
A special licence shall authorize the steamer named therein to carry, upon voyages of not more than thirty days' duration, between ports to be specified in the licence, a limited number of free Chinese passengers, not exceeding one passenger for every ten tons of the gross tonnage of such steamer.
A steamer provided with a special licence shall be relieved from the medical examination of her passengers, from the regulations contained in schedule A to "The Chinese Passengers Act, 1835," and from the regulations contained in schedule E to "The Chinese Emigration Consolidation Ordinance, 1874," but every special licence shall be granted upon the following conditions :-
1.The space set apart for the Chinese passengers shall be equal to the space prescribed by the aforesaid schedule E. 2.The provisions supplied to the Chinese passengers shall be equivalent in quantity and quality to the provisions prescribed by the aforesaid schedule E.
3.The Emigration Officer at any port to which the Licence extends shall be at liberty at all times to enter and inspect the ship, and the accommodation, provisions and stores provided for the Chinese passengers : so however that the
Special licences.
departure of the steamer with a mail be not delayed
thereby.
Any person impeding such entry or inspection or
refusing to allow the same to be made, shall be liable to a
penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars for each
offence.
The Honourable PHINEAS RYRIE seconds the motion.
The Honourable WILLIAM KESWICK, seconded by the Honourable HENRY LOWCOCK, moves as an amendment that the 1st paragraph of the clause under discussion be amended by the insertion of the words after "belongs" "or to any other first class steamer which is approved by the Governor."
Amendment unanimously adopted.
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary, while approving generally of the Clause as amended by Mr. KESWICK, suggests that it would expedite matters to pass the Bill as it stands without the insertion of the clause, which as it dealt with a case upon which no opinion had as yet been expressed by the Secretary of State, might be disallowed, and would, if embodied in the Bill, delay its confirmation. He would advise, that the provisions of the proposed clause be first submitted separately to the Secretary of State, when, if approved, they could be made the subject of a separate Ordinance.
The Council concurs in these views, and the Honourable the Attorney General thereupon begs leave to withdraw his motion.
The motion is then withdrawn, and the consideration of the Bill is proceeded with. Finally the Bill is committed and passed, bearing the Title of – An Ordinance enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice of the Legislative Council thereof, to amend the Law relating to Chinese Passenger Ships and the Conveyance of Chinese Emigrants, - being "No. 5 of 1876."
Moved by the Honourable WILLIAM KESWICK, and seconded by the Honourable HENRY LOWCOCK, that His Excellency the Governor be requested to forward, with Ordinance No. 5, the special clause granting facilities to free emigration in certain first class Steamers, with a view to its early consideration by the Secretary of State, and its speedy emdodiment in an Ordinance.
Resolution carried unanimously.
The Chief Justice adjourns the Council sine die at 3.30 P.M.
A. E. KENNEDY,
Governor.
Read and confirmed, this 21st Day of September, 1876.
H. ERNEST. WODEHOUSE,
Clerk of Councils.