CO129-167 - Sir Kennedy - 1874 [1-8] — Page 308

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Report on Ordinance No. 3 of 1874.

The statement of objects and reasons appended to this Ordinance requires to he supplemented by a further Report, as the Bill underwent certain alterations and modifications in Committee to which attention is directed.

Section VIII, which is founded on Ordinance No. 8 of 1871, has been entirely redrafted, and thereby simplified. The three paragraphs of which it is now com- posed, when read in connection with Schedules E and F, seem fully to carry out the intentions of the original Ordinance. The purport of Section V of that Ordinance is carried out :-

(1.) By paragraph 1 of Section VIII of the Consolidation Ordinance.

(2.) By inserting in Section V (paragraph 1) the words "except ships "about to proceed on a voyage of not more than thirty days' duration "within the meaning of Section VIII of this Ordinance," after the words "no Chinese Passenger Ship."

(3.) By inserting similar words in Section VII (paragraph 1) after the words "in every Chinese Passengers' Ship."

Similar words bave not been inserted in paragraph 4 of Section VII, although by Section V of Ordinance No. 8 of 1871, ships coming within its provisions were exempted from the operation of Ordinance 6 of 1859 of which paragraph 4 formed Section III. Under the consolidated Ordinance, therefore, all Chinese Passengers

will have to undergo medical examination whether they intend to proceed on voyages of less than thirty days' duration or not. It so happens that owing to a misleading of the existing law by the Emigration Officer here, such passengers have hitherto always been so examined, and the Council upon having this fact pointed out to them, thought that this practice was a sound and useful one, and should not be abandoned, and the law has, therefore, been made consistent with it.

A change in the law of considerable importance was offected in Committee by substituting in paragraph 10 of Section XV the words "The Governor upon being satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting," for the words "any Police Magistrate upon being satisfied by information on oath that there is "reasonable and probable cause for believing."

It is clear that in the event of an attempted invasion of this law, the matter would be managed with the most profound secrecy and caution, and information on oath such as a Magistrate would alone feel justified in acting on would be a very difficult thing to obtain. In a recent case which occurred here where such an attempted evasion was anticipated by the Government, it was found that the state of the law rendered a seizure of the vessel impossible, as the only information which was at the disposal of the Government at the time failed to satisfy the Police Ma- gistrates. From the precautions taken in this case, the vessel in question did not, there is every reason to believe, carry out the projected offence, but the matter showed very clearly that it was necessary to strengthen the hands of the Government by placing the whole power of seizure and search in the hands of His Excellency the Governor. In this amendment, the principle adopted in Section XVI of "The Kidnapping Act, 1872," (35 and 36 Vic. cap. 19,) has been followed.

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