22. It is realised, however, that much remains to be done, and that vigilance cannot be relaxed: the land frontier is extensive, and the irregular coast-line, which is of course extremely long, is the smuggler's joy.
23. At first the local population, especially at some of the villages near the frontier, were undisguisedly hostile, but they appear now to be reconciled to our advent, which, however, they do not pretend to welcome.
24. The European Revenue Officer in charge and the Chinese Revenue Officers suffered occasionally from malaria.
VIII. LEGISLATION.
25. As foreshadowed in the Report for 1933, an Opium Amendment Ordinance was passed substituting a new section for the existing section of the ordinance relating to divans. It will be remembered that the amendment was necessitated by the Full Court's decision in a test case that the tenant of a floor of a Chinese tenement house who had sublet a portion of that floor was not an occupier of the portion so sublet within the meaning of the amended ordinance. As the section relating to divans now stands, a lessor or landlord who knowingly lets premises for use as an opium divan, or, having let them, consents to their use as such, is liable to prosecution.
26. The Merchandise Marks Ordinance was twice amended in the course of the year. Following the Merchandise Marks Act, 1891, powers are now given to the Crown or to the Superintendent of Imports and Exports to prosecute for offences which appear to the Attorney General or the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, as the case may be, to affect the general interests of the Colony, or of a section of the community, or of a trade. Four such prosecutions were successfully instituted. The second amending ordinance incorporates into the principal ordinance the provisions of the Merchandise Marks Act, 1911, and gives additional powers to the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, if he is satisfied that imported goods, which bear a mark purporting to be that of a manufacturer in the United Kingdom, have been fraudulently marked, to require full information of the importer. If the information required is not forthcoming within 14 days, the importer renders himself liable to a fine of a thousand dollars. Furthermore, the Superintendent of Imports and Exports is empowered to communicate any information which he acquires to any person whose name or trade mark is alleged to have been fraudulently used or infringed in connection with such goods.
IX. TRADE STATISTICS.
27. As the result of a still further decline in the visible trade of the Colony there was a slight decrease in the number of documents dealt with by the Statistical Office, 579,787...