HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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1. The purpose of this Ordinance is to make illegal such concerns, which are generally known as "bucket shops", as the Chinese Produce Exchanges, a feature of the local market in 1921, and the Gold Bar Exchanges which have been operated recently in the Colony.
2. Section 2 is derived in the main from s. 1 of a Canadian Act of 1881 (51 Vict. c. 42) and forbids gambling in "futures" in respect of metals, currencies and commodities generally. It does not prohibit the buying or selling forward of stocks and shares.
3. Section 3 prohibits the opening and keeping of any place, and section 4 the advertising, etc., of facilities, for the purposes of such gambling in "futures".
4. Section 5 puts aiders and abettors on the same footing as principal offenders.
5. Section 6 prescribes the penalties for offences against the Ordinance.
6. Section 7 makes the consent of the Attorney General a condition precedent to the institution of proceedings.
7. Section 8 throws the onus of disproving intent to make profit and absence of bond fide intention to make or receive delivery (v. section 1) on the defendant in criminal proceedings under this Ordinance.
8. Section 9 exempts from the operation of the Ordinance agents or brokers operating in the Colony for exchange concerns outside the Colony.
9. Section 10 similarly makes this Ordinance inapplicable to exchange transactions effected by or with Banking Companies and Corporations.
10. Section 11 empowers the Governor by Order in Council to exempt from the operation of the Ordinance such persons and business concerns as he deems fit.
TRUSTEE ORDINANCE, 1934.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the law relating to Trustees". He said: The purpose of this Ordinance is to bring up to date the law of the Colony relating to trustees on the lines of the Trustee Act, 1925. As will be seen from the Table of Correspondence practically all the provisions of that Act have been incorporated with slight amendments here and there to suit local conditions. Part VII retains the provisions of Part I of the 1901 Ordinance dealing with the Official Trustee, and Part VIII which authorises and regulates Trust Companies is derived from Straits Settlement Ordinance No. 31 of 1926.