Enclosure No.2
23
CBJECTS AND REASONS.
1. Sections 7(2) and 8 of the Promissory Oaths
Ordinance, 1869, require that the oaths of members of
the Executive and Legislative Council respectively shall
be tendered by the Governor.
2. The expression "Governor" includes the officer administering the Government in local enactments under
section 39A(1) of the Interpretation Ordinance, No. 31
of 1911, and also under Article XIX of the Letters Patent
of the 14th February, 1917, and under Article XXXVII
of the Royal Instructions of the same date.
3.
By Article VIII of the said Instructions the
Governor presides at all meetings of the Executive Council,
unless when prevented by illness or other grave cause,
and in his absence such Member as the Governor may appoint,
or in the absence of such Member the senior Member of the
Council actually present, shall preside.
4. By Article XXI of the said Instructions the
Governor presides in the Legislative Council unless
prevented by illness or other grave cause; and in his
absence any Member appointed by him in writing shall preside, or in default of such Member, the Member who is
first in precedence of those present shall preside.
5. Although the Promissory Oaths Ordinance, 1869,
does not require that the oaths of Members of the Executive
and Legislative Councils shall be taken at a meeting of
the relevant Council, and although by section 11 of the
Ordinance he may enter upon his office and remain the rein
until the required oaths are duly tendered, it seems manifestly desirable that he should take the oaths at
the first meeting of the Council which he attends.