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Granting of the licence is conditional so that we have to notify the order.
We are aware that all intending passengers have to be passed by the Emigration Officer, prior to the application for licence.
There are other reasons now for the delay.
This works a hardship in two ways.
Firstly - After the passengers are all examined, the boat is ready to sail, but has to be delayed in order to obtain the requisite licence.
Secondly - And this is the most burdensome part of our complaint. After the passenger list is once granted and submitted to His Excellency the Governor, we are not allowed to take on a single additional passenger without going through the same routine.
This entails the present hardship of which we complain.
His Excellency the Governor has most kindly formulated an Ordinance to remove the evil that formerly attended the issue of passenger licences, but the new regulation reimposes the delay that the Ordinance was intended to abolish.
Our pecuniary loss in consequence is therefore considerable.
We would respectfully submit that if the new order is intended to prevent the issue of a licence in case it might be withdrawn, owing to any irregularity on the part of the applicant, such a course might be obtained by making the examination without delay.
The new regulation is not only an undue restriction on the Chinese passengers, who have to submit to the expense of a longer sojourn on the boarding house than formerly, but also causes delay now required to comply with owing to the new order.
We consider this an undue restriction on the commerce of the port.
We trust that its early removal will be the result of our representations.