HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 57 21ST AUGUST, 1924.
PRESENT:―
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, SIR REGINALD EDWARD STUBBS, K.C.M.G.
THE OFFICER COMMANDING THE TROOPS (COLONEL CLAUDE RUSSELL-BROWN, D.S.O.)
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY (HON. SIR CLAUD SEVERN, K.B.E., C.M.G.)
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL (HON. MR. J. H. KEMP, K.C., C.B.E.)
THE COLONIAL TREASURER (HON. MR. D. W. TRATMAN).
HON. MR. H. T. CREASY (Director of Public Works).
HON. MR. A. E. WOOD (Secretary for Chinese Affairs).
HON. MR. E. D. C. WOLFE (Captain Superintendent of Police).
HON. MR. P. H. HOLYOAK.
HON. MR. H. W. BIRD.
HON. MR. R. H. KOTEWALL.
HON. MR. CHAU SIU-KI.
HON. MR. C. MONTAGUE EDE.
HON. MR. C. G. ALABASTER, K.C., O.B.E. MR. S. B. B. MCELDERRY (Clerk of Councils).
Minutes
The minutes of the last meeting of the Council were approved and signed.
Finance
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Governor, laid on the table Financial Minutes No. 67, 68 and 69 and moved that they be referred to the Finance Committee.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Governor, laid upon the table the Report of the Finance Committee (No. 6) and moved that it be adopted.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and the motion was agreed to.
Opium Amendment Ordinance
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled, An Ordinance to amend the Opium Ordinance 1923. He said: The principal object of this Bill, Sir, is to make more clear and more stringent the restrictions on dealings in raw opium. In the first place the Bill makes it clear that all unlicensed dealings in raw opium are illegal, whether the raw opium be in the Colony or not, and whether the raw opium be ascertained or be in existence or not. In the second place the Bill provides that no dealings in raw opium shall be legal unless they are under license from the Governor.
I should like to explain that the prohibition of importation of raw opium applies not only to the firm or person arranging for the importation, but is also a prohibition that applies to the shipper, and the captain of the ship on which it is carried. It is an offence for all those persons to import raw opium without a license.
In the second place I should like to point out that in future every importation of raw opium into the Colony or exportation from the Colony will require a permit not only for it to be landed here or transhipped, but also for the exportation of through cargo which never leaves the ship; in either case a permit will be required from the Superintendent of Imports and Exports as well as a licence from the Governor.
Clauses 3, 4 and 5 contain amendments consequential on the amendments made by Clause 2.
Clause 6 of the Bill amends section 21(3) of the principal ordinance in accordance with recommendations made by the Chamber of Commerce.
In Clause 7, which corrects certain drafting errors in the principal Ordinance, opportunity is taken to make some
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slight changes in the penalties. For example the maximum penalty for refusal by a revenue officer to produce his badge is made $250; it seems unnecessary to give a power of imprisonment. The special penalties for obstructing searches have been omitted; those offences will be dealt with under the general penalty clause.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.
The Supplementary Appropriation Bill
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY―Sir, I beg to report to your Excellency that the Bill intituled "An Ordinance to authorize the Appropriation of a Supplementary Sum of Two million and twenty-eight thousand and thirty-eight Dollars and three Cents to defray the Charges of the year 1923" has been considered by the Finance Committee and the various items were passed without amendment. I beg now to move that the Bill be read a third time.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER having seconded the motion the third reading of the Bill was agreed to and the Bill passed into law accordingly.
The Adjournment
H.E. THE GOVERNOR―It is desired to pass the Opium Ordinance early, for reasons into which I need not go at the present moment, and I therefore think we must have another meeting next week. I propose therefore that the Council adjourn till this day week at 2.30.
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FINANCE COMMITTEE
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A meeting of the Finance Committee was afterwards held, the COLONIAL SECRETARY presiding.
Harbour Office Vote
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of $15,250 in aid of the vote Harbour Master's Department, Personal Emoluments.
THE CHAIRMAN―This sum of $15,250 is made up chiefly of the following items: Salary of Lieut.- Commander Conway Hake, for acting as Harbour Master from January 29th to July 23rd at £225 a year, this being the difference between £985 and £760 ($1,313); and the salary of Lieut. R. Beauchamp, who was lent as Assistant Harbour Master from 16th April to 30th June, being the difference between £700 and
£350 ($875), and from 1st July to 14th August at £700 a year ($1,016). Then we had to provide the salaries of two additional assistant Government marine surveyors from 1st July to 31st December of this year at £460 a year each. The sum required for this is $6,900. There are various salaries of clerks, which make up the balance to $12,137. In addition to that the Government has arranged with the Crown Agents to the Colonies for the loan of an officer to start and maintain an accounts office and act as general office assistant for the Harbour Office at a salary of $750 a month inclusive. The Harbour Office has to deal with large sums of money and in order to enable the Harbour Master and his Assistant to devote themselves to their duties in connection with shipping and the Harbour generally it has been found necessary to have some official who will always be in the office to deal with correspondence and accounts. The amount required for his salary from the time he leaves England, this month, until the end of the year, is about $3,000.
Approved.
Increased Prison Staff
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of $2,000 in aid of the vote Prison Department, Other Charges, Clothing and Shoes for Staff.
THE CHAIRMAN―This sum is necessary owing to the increase in the staff of the Prison Department.
Approved.
Typhoon Moorings
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of $120,000 on account of Harbour Master's Department, Special Expenditure, Renewal of Moorings, and provisions of New Typhoon Moorings.
THE CHAIRMAN―This is made up of the cost of chain bought from the Crown Agents (to the amount of $58,263); then
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 59
there is a sum which has already been submitted to the Finance Committee for re-arranging the existing buoys ($4,000); special typhoon moorings have been laid in the harbour at a cost of $5,000 each. Sixteen sets of moorings have been laid; that makes $80,000. There is further a tender from the Taikoo Dockyard for material for special typhoon moorings amounting to $34,900. It had been intended by the Harbour Master to include this sum in the Estimates for 1925, but the making of the material necessitates the use of the largest machinery in the Taikoo Dockyard and to ensure that there should be no delay in relaying these moorings he recommended that the work be put in hand at once. A sum of $34,000 is required now; the total of these items is $173,163. The total amount of the items for the current year is: Crown Agents, $58,263; Taikoo Dockyard, $61,736.
HON. MR. HOLYOAK―Could not the chains be got locally, and save time?
THE CHAIRMAN―They have already arrived. I don't think there has been any delay. The necessary chain cables were ordered from England on October 20th, 1923, and arrived in the Colony April 11th, 1924. The concrete blocks, as I explained at a previous meeting of the
Finance Committee take a month to harden, and a month afterwards they will be examined by a diver to see if they are sufficiently embedded to stand the strain of typhoon weather. Chains of the size and weight needed cannot be very readily got in the Colony.
HON. MR. HOLYOAK―I was only wondering whether there had been any delay through ordering from home.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY referred to a minute by Lieut.-Commander Hake putting forward the scheme for the special typhoon moorings. It was dated 25th March.
HON. MR. BIRD―Yet the chain was ordered in October last?
THE CHAIRMAN replied that when the chains was ordered it was intended to have heavy blocks with the usual length of chain, but later Lieut.- Commander Hake designed a special type of mooring with a hanging five-ton block, shortening the length of the chain, and no doubt a good many fathoms of chain had been saved by adopting this scheme. He did not think there had been any undue delay.
Approved.
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