Objects and Reasons.
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This Bill should, it is proposed, repeal and supersede the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances.
There are many circumstances connected with Chinese Emigration which, although important at the time of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, are now not of practical consequence; there have been also since the date of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, great changes in the conditions under which Asiatic Emigration is permitted from places or in vessels under British control.
The scheme of this Bill is to endeavour to simplify and compress the rather disconnected provisions of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances; to connect it more sharply and clearly with its mother Act (the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855), to omit such portious as seem to be at the present day alveolete, unnecessary or forbidden and to bring it up to Вы stage of modern requirements.
It is difficult, therefore, owing to the much alterad features of the Bill when it is compared with those of the existing Ordinances to give a tabulated comparison which may be of complete service without entering into a great mass of detail.
A general summary of the Bill itself and a general comparative analysis of its divergences from the existing Law seems at any rate desirable. The present Bill is divided into the following parts:-
Part I, Preliminary Provisions.
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II, Provisions relating to ships carrying
emigrants.
III, Provisione relating to emigrants :—
(a.) Medical Inspection.
(6.) Provisions relating to Passage Brokers.
(e) Provisions as to Emigration Boarding
Honses,
Part. IV, Penal Provisions.
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V, Miscellaneous.
Part I. Preliminary Provisions, The preliminary pro visions consist of "definitions" and "explatstory clauses" indicating where departure has been made from the pro- visions of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, and contain certain exemptions from the provisions of the Act in cases in which Asiatic passengers who cannot be classified pro- perly as emigrants are being carried.
Part II. Provisions relating to Ships carrying Emi- grants. The general scheme of this Part of the Bill is that all ships to which the Bill applies must be possessed of some form of Licence. Licences are in the Bill divided into three classes designated as "General", " Outport" and
Special".
CL
The Outport" licence is that capable of being granted by an Emigration Officer to a ship about to proceed with
emigrants from a port outside the Colony.
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The "General" licence and the "Special" licence are Licences capable of being granted by the Governor to ships which are about to proceed with emigrants from a port in the Colony. The "General" licence is as its name implies under no restriction of period; a "Special" licenco is referable only to Mail Ships and is limited in period. In this part are also laid down other formalities which have to he complied with by these ships and the conditions under which each class of licence may be granted.
Voyages are divided into two categories, namely, "long" and "short" voyages; loug voyage is a voyag, declared to be of more than 30 days duration; a "short 'e voyage is a voyage of more than 7 and not more than 30 daye duration or any other voyage declared to be a short voyage.
There are three Schedules of Regulations respecting th ̧- internal accommodation, comfort and treatment of past sengers on voyages. Of these schedules the Sixth prese cribes what is necessary on long voyages; the Fourth wha-
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ments
is necessary on short voyages on ships under "General"- or Outport" licence; the Fifth what is necessery on short voyages on ships under "Special" licence. The require- on long voyages are naturally more elaborate than those for short voyages. The requirements on short voyages on ships under "Special" licence are slightly less rigorous than those on short voyages on ships under "General" or "Ontport" licences, the reason being that "Special" licences are restricted to ships of that superior class which carries Mails,
Part III. Provisions relating to Emigrants; —-
(a.) Medical Inspection.-The provisions relative to medical inspection are all brought together in sections 24 to 30.
(4) Provisions relating to "Passage Brokers ".—- There is little difference between these pro- visions and those which existed under the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its Amending Ordinances,
(e.) Provisious as to Emigration Boarding Houses. -The same remarks apply here as are made with regard to puragraph (6) above.
Part IV.
Penal Provisions.-The Penal provisions of
the Bill have all been brought together in sections 47 to 56. Part V Miscellaneous.--These are more or less Formal sections,
The principal differences which exist between the pro- visions of the Bill and of the Chinese Emigration Ordin- ance, 1889, and its Amending Ordinances are as follows:- (a.) All references to contract emigrants are omitted in the Bill because Contract Emigration is now a thing of the past.
(6.) A uumber of sections of the Chinese Emigra- tion Ordinance, 1889, relative to illegal or pro- hibited fittings are omittal in the Bill because it is thought that these provisions are now ua- necessary and out of date.
(c.) The classification of voyages is clearly marked by their division into two simple categories, The obligations namely, "long" and "short". which a ship is compelled to undertake towards emigrants depend primarily upon whether she is proceeding on the "long" or "short" voyage.
(d) The provisions of the Bill relative to Medical requirements and the Penal provisions are grouped respectively in a more convenient formu than in the Chinese Emigration Ordinance,
1889.
J. H. KEMP,
Attorney General,
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