1
16
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
mandamus shall be the practice from time to time for the time being in force in England. It is unnecessary to provide for any pending matters because there are none of any of these three classes at the moment.
BANKRUPTCY ORDINANCE.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled An Ordinance to amend the Bankruptcy Ordinance, 1891. He said: The object of this Bill is to provide that upon а bankrupt coming up for his discharge, the Court shall take into consideration a report by the Official Receiver on the bankrupt's conduct and affairs, including his conduct in the course of the bankruptcy proceedings. The Bill also provides that the Official Receiver's report shall be prima facie evidence of the state- ments contained therein. These two provisions occur in the English Bankruptcy Act, from which our Ordinance was taken, but for some reason they were omitted when our Ordinance of 1891 was passed. It is considered desirable that they should now be introduced here. The amendments are made applicable to pending bankruptcies. I beg to move the first reading.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded and the Bill was read a first time.
Objects and Reasons.
The "Objects and Reasons" for the Bill were stated as follows:-
This short bill is to introduce two provisions of the English bankruptcy law which do not appear in the Hong Kong Bankruptcy Ordinance, No. 7 of 1891, though they did appear in the English Act on which that Ordinance was founded, i.e., the Bankruptcy Act, 1890, 53 and 54 Vict., c. 71. These two provisions appear also in the present English Bankruptcy Act, 1914, 4 and 5 Geo. 5, c. 59. They are (a) a provision that when a bankrupt comes up for his discharge the court shall take into consideration a report of the Official Receiver on the bankrupt's conduct and affairs, including his conduct during the bankruptcy proceedings, and (b) a provision that the Official Receiver's report shall be prima facie evidence of the statements therein contained. The amendments are made, applicable to pending bankruptcies.
TOBACCO ORDINANCE.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled An Ordinance to amend the law relating to the taxation of tobacco. He said: The present system of taxation of tobacco is a system by which the manufactured article is taxed. That involves a scale of duties varying with the value of the particular
22