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Rcce Enclosure 29 OCT 0
653
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
27th September, 191
Hongkong..
Report on Ordinance No. . .28 . . .
. of 191 o
I have examined the accompanyiny Ordinance, entitled
An Ordinance to mend the Magistrates Amendment Ordinance, 1902
and I um of opinion that the Ordinance is one which is not contrary to the Governor's
Instructions,
This Ordinance amends the Magistrates Amendment Ordina ce 1903, (Ordinance 19 of 1903).
That Ordinance created it an offence to "knowingly" harbour a Chinese married woman who has left her husband. Difficulty has arisen in proving to the Magistrate that the man charged knew the woman harbou -ed to be a married woman.
A new section is substituted for section 2 of the Ordinance of 1903 which in the Proviso to the section places on the person charged the onus of proving that he had reasonable cause other than from information supplied by the woman herself for believing that she wa a spinster or a widow.