Statement of Objects and Reasons.
The object of this Ordinance, which is the result of correspondence with the Secretary of State, is to provide means for altering the statutes of St. Paul's College and to arrange for the devolution of the site of the College and other property belonging to it. The preamble gives a brief history of the College, and it will be seen that, upon the revocation of the Letters Patent which created the Bishopric of Victoria, St. Paul's College was reduced to a most unsatisfactory state, for which legislation affords the simplest, if not the only, remedy.
The lease of the College site had been taken in the name of the Bishop of Victoria, who as a body corporate would, it was thought, have been a perpetual undying tenant of the land; and the statutes provided that all other property should for the same reason vest in the Bishops of Victoria.
The Bishops of Victoria became ex-officio Wardens, charged with the whole management or control of the College, and their consent was required for any modification or alteration of the statutes; consequently when the Bishopric was annulled by the revocation of the Letters Patent after Bishop Alford's resignation, there was no person capable of being tenant under the Crown Lease, no person competent to become legally Warden of the College, and no person competent to alter the statutes so as to create a Warden.
This Ordinance is introduced to remedy this state of affairs, and to relieve the Right Reverend Prelate, who is now acting as Warden, from the somewhat doubtful position in which he finds himself placed.
JOHN BRANSTON, Attorney General.
Hongkong, 28th June, 1875.
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