the Cape. The proviso, however, as it stands does not exactly fit the case. The Imperial Act requires that there shall be on board every Chinese passenger ship a surgeon and "interpreter" approved by the Emigration Officer, without any limitation as to the Country of the surgeon. This provision is left untouched in the Ordinance, so far as it relates to voyages to the Westward of the Cape, but is restricted, so far as regards voyages to the Eastward, by the obligation to employ a European surgeon where one can be procured. In practice the Emigration Officer would probably be found to follow the evident, though unexpressed, intentions of the Legislature, and his conformity could at any time be secured by instructions from the Governor. But it is hardly desirable to place on the Statute Book an Ordinance which says one thing while it evidently means the opposite.

4. But independently of this he entertains strong doubts whether it is expedient absolutely to exclude Chinese practitioners from these passenger ships. It should be remembered that the mortality in British ships carrying Chinese...

Page 4

885

was removed as it seems to be an OCR error or unrelated to the main text, and the text was reordered and formatted according to the given rules. The original text had several OCR errors and spacing issues, which were corrected. The text was also reformatted into proper paragraphs. The page numbering "Page 4" was kept as it is, assuming it is part of the original scan.
Share This Page