-2-
333
4.
In 1913 an amending Ordinance was passed which provided that the Chief Justice might grant an exemption order in the case of any person (a) who was a graduate of the University of Hongkong, or (b) who had passed any examination which would in England exempt him from the solicitors preliminary examination there.
5.
There are,
of course, a great many examinations in England which are grounds for exemption from the sclicitors preliminary examination. Among them is the Oxford Local examination. That examination used to be held in the schools here, but about the year 1913 it was abandoned for the matriculation examination of the University of Hongkong.
6. It seems probable that it was the Oxford Local examination which the legislature had in mind when the Ordinance of 1913 was passed, but the effect of that ordinance was that no one could obtain exemption from the preliminary examination unless (a) he were a graduate of the University of Hongkong, or (b) he had been educated in England and had passed one of the necessary examinations there.
7.
As practically all maticulation examinations in England are grounds of exemption, and as the standard of the matricula- tion examination of the University of Hongkong ia as high as that of any matriculation examination in England, it seema only right that the mutriculation examination of the University of Hongkong should be made a ground of exemption from the preliminary examination here, and without the necessity of any order of the Chief Justice in each case.
8.
Paragraph (a) of section 2 accordingly aude the matriculation