Enclosure 2.
14519 14 FRECT
Rec'd 5 JUL 17,
Report by the Attorney General on
Ordinance No. 7 of 1897.
Attorney General's Office, 26th May, 1897.
I have examined the accompanying Ordinance entitled "An Ordinance to provide for the punishment of Stowaways arriving in this Colony," and I am of opinion that the Ordinance is one which is not contrary to the Governor's instructions.
Objects and Reasons.
The Vagrancy Law renders those who bring destitute people to this Colony liable, in certain cases, to repay the expense thereby incurred by the Colony in the maintenance, etc. of such people.
Where passage money or even part passage money has been paid for such destitutes, or where, out of compassion, a passage has been given, it is obviously just that those who knowingly import into the Colony persons who have no means of subsistence should not be allowed to put the community to the cost of maintaining them.
Where, however, such destitutes come as stowaways, against the consent of those in charge of the ship, and no passage money or compensation is paid, it seems fair that means should be provided by which the stowaway can be punished and the master of the ship be protected.
This Ordinance is intended to provide such means. The Imperial Merchant Shipping Act 1894, section 237, does not apply to Foreign Ships, and Stowaways are brought to Hongkong in Foreign Ships as well as in British Ships.
The River Steamers Ordinance (No. 18 of 1895) and Ordinance 22 of 1890 have provided efficacious remedies in cases coming within their respective limits, and it is trusted that the present Ordinance will prove as useful, in cases where passages have been unlawfully obtained, as Ordinance 22 of 1890 has been in preventing attempts by Chinese to obtain such passages from Hongkong.
W. MEIGH GOODMAN,
Attorney General.