605
single voyage.
If the latter view is correct the Governor is only restrained from issuing such licences by the instructions which have from time to time been given to him or to his predecessors by previous Secretaries of State for the Colonies and the further question then arises whether these instructions are not "ultra vires". The Solicitor to the Board of Trade suggests that it is doubtful whether, seeing that the Chinese Passenger Act 1855 clearly contemplated ships carrying contracted labour, the use of the words "subject to such conditions as may from time to time be prescribed under instructions from His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies" in Section 11 of the Ordinance can be held to cover the absolute prohibition of the grant to ships of licenses for such carrying or in fact anything more than conditions in the nature of regulations on the lines indicated in that Act and the Schedules referred to, and this apart from the question whether the legislation of Hong Kong could by Ordinance (See Section 1 of the Ordinance of 1889) divest itself of powers conferred upon its officers by the Imperial Act.
(3)