ORDINANCE No. 5 OF 1874.
Chinese Emigration.
XIII. The owners or charterers of any Chinese passenger ship and any emigration passage broker and any intending emigrant by a Chinese passenger ship and any master or other person in charge of a Chinese passenger ship who shall fail to comply with or commit any breach of the provisions of part I of this Ordinance so far as they may respectively be bound thereby, and any person granting or knowingly uttering any forged certificate, permit, notice, or other document under this Ordinance shall, without prejudice to any other proceeding, civil or criminal, be liable upon summary conviction before a Magistrate to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding six months.
PART II.
EMIGRATION FROM PORTS OUT OF THE COLONY.
XIV. Before beginning to fit out any ship intended to be used for the conveyance of Chinese emigrants to be embarked at any port or place out of the Colony, a notice to that effect shall be given in writing to the Emigration Officer, and such notice shall be signed by the owner and master of such ship, or in the event of the owner not being resident within the Colony, by the agent and master thereof, and in case such notice shall not have been given, the owner and master, or the agent and master of such ship, as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence against this section, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed: Provided always that where there shall be no agent of an absent owner in the Colony, the notice may be signed by the master alone.
2. The master of every ship arriving within the waters of the Colony and which shall be fitted out for the conveyance of Chinese emigrants shall, within twenty-four hours, report the same to the Emigration Officer, and in case he shall neglect so to do, he shall be deemed guilty of an offence against this section, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
3. The fittings of every ship mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this section shall be subject to the approval of the Emigration Officer, who is hereby empowered, at all reasonable times, to go on board and search and inspect such ship and her fittings and to order any fittings which shall in his opinion be objectionable, to be forthwith removed; and any person who shall in any way impede or attempt to impede the Emigration Officer in the execution of this duty, shall be guilty of an offence against this section, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
4. No such ship shall clear out or proceed to sea until the master thereof shall have received from the Emigration Officer a certificate in the form contained in schedule H to this Ordinance, and every such certificate shall be liable to a stamp duty of twenty-five dollars.
5. All barricades and gratings apparently intended to be used, or which are capable of being used for the purpose of confining Chinese emigrants below decks, or within any particular part of a ship shall be deemed to be prohibited fittings within the meaning of this section.
6. It shall be lawful for the Governor, from time to time, by Proclamation to be inserted in the Gazette to prohibit the use or carriage in any ship of any other description of fittings therein specified, and every such prohibition shall have the same force or effect as if it were expressly enacted in this section.
7. All prohibited fittings wherever found within the Colony shall be seized and shall be forfeited to the Crown in manner hereinafter mentioned.
8. Whoever shall, without lawful excuse (the proof of which shall lie on the accused), manufacture, purchase, sell, or have in his possession any prohibited fittings, shall be guilty of an offence against this section, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
9. The owner, agent, or master of any ship intended for the conveyance of Chinese emigrants to be embarked at any port or place out of the Colony who shall knowingly permit any prohibited fittings to be taken on board such ship, or to remain therein after the same have been taken on board, or who shall refuse to remove forthwith any fittings which the Emigration Officer shall have ordered to be removed, shall be guilty of an offence against this Ordinance, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed, and all such last mentioned fittings shall, in case of such refusal as aforesaid, be seized and forfeited to the Crown as in the case of prohibited fittings.
10. If any such ship shall leave or attempt to leave the waters of the Colony without the certificate required by paragraph 4, or shall leave or attempt to leave the waters of the Colony, having on board any prohibited fittings, or any fittings which the Emigration Officer shall have ordered to be removed, or any other fittings of a similar kind and description, in every such case the master of such ship, and the owner or agent if proved to have sanctioned such leaving or attempting to leave as aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of an offence against this section, and shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed, and all such fittings shall be seized and forfeited to the Crown, whether the same be prohibited fittings or not.
11. If any person shall make or attempt to make any fraudulent use of a certificate granted under this section, or shall forge, counterfeit, alter, or erase the whole or any part thereof, or shall use or attempt to use any spurious or fraudulent certificate, the person so offending, and every person aiding and abetting such offence, shall be liable to the punishment hereinafter prescribed.
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