Enclosure 38
A BILL
ENTITLED
No. 3:—[29.5.97.
An Ordinance to further amend The Prepared Opium Ordinance, 1891.
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:--
1. This Ordinance may be cited, for all purposes as The Prepared Opium (Divans) Ordinance, 1897, and shall be construed as one with Ordinance No. 21 of 1891, (as amended by Ordinance No. 4 of 1894) hereinafter referred to as the principal Ordinance; and the three Ordinances may be cited together as The Prepared Opium Ordinances, 1891 to 1897.
2. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression "Opium Divan" shall include any house, room, or other place, used for the smoking of prepared Opium or dross Opium by others than the tenant and his family.
3. No person shall open or carry on any Opium Divan without a valid Licence from the Colonial Secretary.
4. Such Licence shall be in the form set forth in the Schedule to this Ordinance and be subject to the conditions which may be endorsed upon it. It may, at any time, be cancelled by the Colonial Secretary for any failure to comply with the conditions under which it is granted or for any contravention of the requirements of the law for the time being in force relating to Opium or for any breach of any of the Regulations, for the time being in force, relating to Opium Divans.
Such cancellation shall not, however, relieve any offender from any penalty incurred under this or any other Ordinance or under Sanitary Bye-laws or under any of such Regulations.
5. Opium Divans shall be open, at all times, to the inspection of the Opium Farmer, of all Excise Officers, of Officers of the Police not being under the rank of Sergeant and of Officers of the Sanitary Board.
6. Any person who commits any of the following offences shall be liable, upon Summary Conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding three months :-
(a) Opens or carries on an Opium Divan without a valid Licence; or
(b) Knowingly permits any person other than an adult male to smoke opium or dross opium in an Opium Divan; or
(c) Knowingly permits or suffers any female, not being the Opium Divan Keeper or the wife or child of such Keeper to enter or remain in an Opium Divan; or
(d) Knowingly permits any armed person to be in an Opium Divan.
7. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council, from time to time, to make and when made to alter, add to, or revoke Regulations with regard to the licensing, management and classification of Opium Divans and as to the Fees to be paid in respect of such Licences, and to prescribe a scale of pecuniary penalties not exceeding, in each case, twenty-five dollars, for the breach of any such Regulations. Such Regulations shall not come into force until they are notified in the Gazette and, thereafter, such penalties may be enforced, summarily, before a Magistrate and, on conviction for any breach of such Regulations the offender shall be liable, in default of payment, to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding one month.
8. Sections Eleven and Seventeen of the Principal Ordinance, are hereby repealed.
REG 517, Ordinance 21 of 1891.