CO129-104 - Sir Robinson - 1865 [1-3] & Acting Governor Mercer - 1865 [3-4] — Page 488

5943/65"

4 in Fest. 34.

484

wiches

word

without delay; I use the armed "predevine

advisedly

in order that the can be not

"gazetted" (ace Mi Smale's Colleji

in the sense

of being published in the Gazette for general information, but that the same be proclaime in the sense in which the Imperial

Parliament (ou Scolion 5 has provided

of its Enactments should läste

that one

Gfeel

in the Colonies.

I have drafted a form which

seems to me to be an

appropriate ond and

which I have appended to this communication,

I have, tt,

(Digite) Neury John Ball.

(True Copy)

WAAlexande

Acting Colonial Senetary

遭

So. 67.

W. T. MERCER.

PROCLAMATION,

By His Excellency WILLIAM THOMAS MERCER, Esquire, Acting Governor and Commander-in- Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same.

Whereas an Act was made and passed in the Imperial Parliament in the Session holden in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Years of the Reign of Her Majesty The now QUEEN, intituled “An "Act to determine the Time at which Letters Patent shall take effect in the Colonies," which said Act was and is in the Words and Figures following, that is to say:

Whereas Her Majesty hath from Time to Time caused to be made under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divers Letters Patent intended to take effect within Her Majesty's Colonies and Possessions beyond the Seas: And whereas Doubts are entertained respecting the Period at which such Letters Patent have taken or may hereafter take effect within such Colonics and Possessions, and it is expedient that such Doubts should be removed: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

Patent not to take

1. No such Letters Patent heretofore made shall (unless otherwise provided. Existing Letters therein or by other lawful Authority) be deemed to have taken or shall take effect in Colonies till effect in any such Colony or Possession as aforesaid until the same were or shall published or acted on. be publicly made known or acted upon therein: Provided that any Act or Thing Acts done under heretofore done or purporting to have been done in pursuance or under Authority valid. of such Letters Patent shall be as valid and effectual as if the same Letters Patent had taken effect at the Date of the making thereof.

such Letters Patent

tent not to take effect

2. No such Letters Patent hereafter to be made shall (unless otherwise Future Letters Pa- provided therein or by other lawful Authority) take effect in any such Colony in Colony till Publi- or Possession until the making of the same shall have been signified therein by cation. Proclamation or other public Notice.

void unless published

Months.

3. Any such Letters Patent by which any Person may he hereafter appointed Appointments by to any Office or Employment within any of such Colonies or Possessions shall Letters Patent to be (unless otherwise provided therein or by other lawful Authority) become null within Six or Nine and void in respect of such Colony, unless the same shall be so signified as aforesaid within the following Period; that is to say, within Nine Calendar Months in case such Colony or Possession shall be to the Eastward of Bengal in the East Indies, or to the West of Cape Horn in South America, or in any other Case within Six Months after the making thereof.

4. The Act, Chapter Ninety-one, of the Ninth and Tenth Years of Her 9 & 10 Viet, e, 91, Majesty, intituled An Act to continue certain Patent Commissions until the repealed. Exhibition of the Commissions revoking them, is hereby repealed.

Period of Act

5. This Act shall take effect in each of Her Majesty's Colonies and Possessions coming into operation. so soon as the same shall be proclaimed therein by the Officer administering the Government thereof.

Now, therefore, I, WILLIAM THOMAS MERCER, Esquire, being the Officer Administering the Government of Hongkong, and in pursuance of instructions in that behalf received from the Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, do, on this Twentieth Day of April, 1865, hereby proclaim the said Act as provided in the Fifth Section thereof, and the same is hereby proclaimed and takes effect in the Colony of Hongkong henceforward accordingly.

By His Excellency's Command,

W. H. ALEXANDER, Acting Colonial Secretary.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

Given at Victoria, Hongkong, this 20th Day of April, 1865.