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Repeal of Ordinance

No. 1 of 1923,

8. 18, and substitution

of new

section.

Addition of

new sections 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 to Ordinance No. 1 of

1923.

- 2.

7. Section 18 of the Female Domestic Service Ordinance, 1923, is repealed, and the following section is substituted therefor :-

18.-(1) Subject to the provisions o sub-section (2), every person who contra venes any of the provisions of section G shall upon summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars and to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months.

(2) In every prosecution under section 6 the magistrate shall find whether the acts or omissions proved, if any, amounted to gross cruelty, and if in his opinion they amounted to gross cruelty the offender shall not be given the option of paying fine but shall be sentenced to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one year.

a

(3) Every person who contravenes any of the provisions of this Ordinance other than those of section 6, and every person who contravenes any regulation made under this Ordinance, shall upon summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars.

8. The following sections are added to the Female Domestic Service Ördinance, 1923, after section 19:—

Procedure.

Onus.

Age.

Saving.

Ordinance No. 4 of

1897.

Ordinance

No. 21 of 1929.

20. In any prosecution under section 6 it shall be lawful for the magistrate to convict of common assault if he finds that an assault was committed but does not find that the girl in question was a mui teai.

21. In every prosecution under this Ordinance it shall until the contrary is proved be presumed that the girl in ques- tion was a mui tsai in the employment of the accused at the time of the alleged offence, and this onus shall not be deemed to be discharged by mere proof that the girl was described in any transaction by some term other than mui tsai.

22. In every prosecntion under this Ordinance, whether evidence be called on the question of age or not, any girl who appears to the magistrate to be of or under or over any particular age shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed for the purposes of such prosecution to be of or under or over such age as the case may be. 23. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect any right of guardianship already vested in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs by virtue of the provisions of the Protec- tion of Women and Girls Ordinance, 1897, or hereafter vested in him by virtue of the provisions of the Protection of Women and Girls Ordinance, 1897, as amended by the Protection of Women and Girls Amendment Ordinance, 1929: Provided that in exercising any such right of guar- dianship the Secretary for Chinese Affairs shall comply with the provisions of section 10 of this Ordinance.

Admissibility

of register,

etc.

24.-(1) In any proceedings whatso- ever, whether under this Ordinance or not, the following shall be admissible in evidence upon production :--

(a) any register, or any part of any register which appears to be kept under this Ordinance;

(b) any extract from any such regis- ter purporting to be certified as correct by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs or Assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Afairs;

(e) any photograph or finger prints which appear to have been taken for the

of purpose any

register.

such

(2) If any such photograph appears to have a serial number, and if the said serial number occurs in some part of any such register as apparently assigned to some particular mui tsai, it shall, until the con- trary is proved, be assumed that the photo- graph in question is the photograph of the mui tsai indicated by the said serial number.

(3) If any such finger prints appear to have a serial number, and if the said serial number appears in some part of any such register as apparently assigned to some particular mui tsai, it shall, until the con- trary is proved, be assumed that the finger prints in question are the finger prints of the mui tsai indicated by the said serial number.

Passed the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, this 31st day of October, 1929.

E. I. WYNNE-JONES,

Deputy Clerk of Councils.

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