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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
No. S. 284.--The following Bill, which it is proposed to introduce in the Legisla tive Council at an early date, is published for general information :—
Short title.
Interpreta-
tion.
No un- licensed
ferry to be maintained
in certain
areas.
Issue of
licence die. cretionary.
A BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to regulate Ferries.
Bx 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 as the Ferries Ordi- nance, 1917,
2.-(1.) In this Ordinance-
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(a) "Ferry means any service, conducted by means of a vessel or vessels propelled by any means except oars and sails, for the conveyance of persons or of persons and things, by watĞI, for payment or reward, between two or more points within the Colony, whether such service be also to any point or points without the Colour or unt, and whether the points between which the service is provided he varied from time to time or not, but does not include the hiring of any vessel to one person for a single journey, and does not include the biring of any vessel to a single pleasure party.
(b) "Ferry Vessel " means any vessel which is
employed for the purpose of a ferry.
(c) "Illegal Ferry" means a ferry which is maie- tained in contravention of section 3 of this Ordinance.
(2.) Every person who shall have been entitled to any share in the profits of an illegal ferry shall be deemed to have maintained such ferry during the period in respect of which he was so entitled, and every owner of a ferry vessel, or, if the vessel is under charter, every charterer of the said vessel, shall be presumed to have been entitled to share in the profits of the ferry until he shall prove affirmatively that he was not entitled to any such share or that such vessel was employed as a farry vessel without his consent or connivance.
(3.) Nothing contained in sub-section (2) of this section shall be constrned as relieving from liability any person who, without being himself entitled to any share in the profits of the ferry, maintains any illegal ferry or counsels procures nids or abets the maintaining of any illegal ferry.
3. (1.) No person ball without a licence under this Ordinance maintain a ferry in any are to which this section is by any regulation made under this Ordinance declared to apply.
(2.) Any such regulation may provide that such declara- tion shall not have the effect of prohibiting the maintenance of a ferry between any single point or any particular points within the area declared and some point or points outside that area.
4. The issue of any licence under this Ordinance shall be subject to the absolute discretion of the Governor in Council.
5. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to Regulations make regulations :—
(a) for licensing und regulating ferries and ferry
vessels;
(b) for defining the conditions of any licence to be
issued under this Ordinance;
(c) for prescribing the fees rent or premium to be paid in respect of any licence to be issued under this Ordinance;
(d) for declaring the areas to which section 3 of
this Ordinance is to apply;
(e) for excluding from the operation of this Orli- nauce any specified ferry or any ferry plying to or from any specified point or points within or without the Colony;
() for granting exclusive rights of maintaining
ferries;
(9) generally for the purposes of this Ordinance.
6. Every person who shall contravene any of the Offences, provisions of this Ordinance or of any regolation mado under this Ordinance, and every person who shall contra- vene any of the provisions of any condition of any licence issued under this Ordinance, shall be deemed to be guilty
of an offence against this Ordinance.
7. Every person who shall be guilty of an offence Penalty. against this Ordinance shall be liable upon summary con- viction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.
8. Any police officer may seize any vessel which he Seizure of
may reasonably suspect is being used to commit any offence ferry vessel. against this Ordinance and any vessel so seized may he dotained by the Captain Superintendent of Police until the conclusion of any proceedings taken under this Ordinance and until the payment of any fine which may be imposed in such proceedings: Provided that the Captain Superin- tendent of Police may release any such vessel so seized upon security to his satisfaction being provided for the payment of any fine which may be imposed in such proceedings.
9. This Ordinance shall not apply to any ferry main- Exemption, tained by the Star Ferry Company Limited between the pier situate opposite to Ice House Street, Victoria, and the pier situate at Kowloon Point and known as to its western portion as the "Star Ferry Pior" and as to its eastern portion as the "Railway Pier", nor shall it affect any rights conferred on the said Company by the terms of the lease to the said Company of the said pier situate opposite to Ice House Street aforesaid.
Objects and Reasons.
The object of this bill is to take power to regulate the ferries of the Colony, other than the present service of the
Star Forry Company Limited.
The main object is not revenue but the interests of the travelling public.
It is intended at present to deal only with the ferries between Victoria and Yaumati, Mong Kok Tsui and Sham Shai Po.
The proposed regulations relating to these ferries will be published with this bill.
X
19th September, 1917.
J. H. KEMP,
Attorney General,
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