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Objects and Reasons.
1. Section 2 of this Ordinance corrects a typographical error in the references to the three previous sections (cf. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99, s. 12) in section 11 of Ordinance No. 7 of 1865, which was made in the authorised 1924 edition of the Ordinances of Hong Kong.
2. Section 3 of the Ordinance adds a new paragraph to section 13 of Ordinance No. 7 of 1865 making the deliberate importation into the Colony of counterfeited King's current copper coin punishable with seven years imprisonment.
3. The King's copper coin is defined in section 2 of the principal Ordinance as including any copper coin and any coin of bronze or mixed metal, and the King's current coin is defined as including any coin whether made of gold, silver, copper, bronze or mixed metal, coined in any mint in His Majesty's dominions or any such coin lawfully current, by virtue of any proclamation or otherwise, in any part of His Majesty's dominions whether within this Colony or otherwise.
4. The new paragraph added to section 13 of the principal Ordinance follows mutatis mutandis the wording of section 6 which made the deliberate importation of counterfeited King's current gold or silver coin punishable with imprisonment for life.
5. The absence hitherto of any provision relating to the King's copper coin corresponding to section 6 of the principal Ordinance (which was based on section 7 of the Coinage Offences Act, 1861) was probably due to the fact that the importation of spurious cents or pence was unlikely.
6. Now, however, since ten cent and five cent pieces made of cupro-nickel have been authorised by Proclamation No. 4 in the Hong Kong Government Gazette Extraordinary of the 9th November, 1935, it has been found that the new coins are being counterfeited and imported and it is necessary to deal with that situation.
December, 1935.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
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