CO129-168 - Sir Kennedy - 1874 [9-12] — Page 167

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Statement of Objects and Reasons.

This Ordinance has been framed with the twofold object of bringing into operation within the Colony certain provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts and Amendment Acts, (which do not of their own force apply here), and of consolidating and amending the local Ordinances which relate to merchant shipping, seamen, and the regulation of the Colonial waters.

With reference to the former object, the fact that the local carrying trade has now passed, in so great a measure, from sailing vessels to steam ships, has necessitated the introduction here of those clauses of the Imperial Acts which pertain specially to safety and the prevention of accidents in the employment of steamers, And as to the latter, the collection together and re-arrangement of the many and frequently intricate provisions with reference to shipping which from time to time have become law since 1845, have become advisable as a matter of convenience; the more especially as certain actual changes in the law are required, which a consolidating Ordinance affords a favourable opportunity of introducing.

Attention is now specially directed to all those alterations in the law which this Ordinance purposes to effect, but before they are enumerated, it should be mentioned, that a considerable amount of redrafting has been found necessary in making this compilation, which however is not of a nature to vary the meaning of the clauses as they originally stood. The marginal reference appended to every section affords a ready means of discovering where such verbal alterations have been made.

PART I.

Chapter I of the first part of the Ordinance contains very material and important modifications of Ordinance No. 4 of 1855, upon which it is founded. Some of the chief reasons for the introduction of that Ordinance do not exist at the present day. The class of vessels to which it mainly applied, viz., junks and lorehas trading between this Colony and the open ports on the Canton river, either no longer exists, or does not seek registration under the Ordinance; and its provisions are now only, or nearly only, taken advantage of by Chinese residents within the Colony, not being British subjects, who register steamers under it; a class of ship to which its pro- visions were obviously never intended originally to apply. As British subjects can, and all but invariably do, register their ships here under the Imperial Acts, there is no necessity for preserving the provisions of section I of Ordinance No. 4 of 1855, as they now stand; and indeed the only reason for not repealing the Ordinance altogether, is that so doing would deprive Chinese residents, not being British subjects, of the privilege of using the British flag, which they have hitherto enjoyed. For these reasons, paragraphs 1 and 2 of chapter I, propose to restrict the operation of the chapter to Chinese residents, not being British subjects, only. Hitherto, all ships colonially registered have been considered not to be subject to the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, and have consequently been permitted to go to sea without certificated masters, mate, or engineers. Such a state of law is obviously unsatisfactory, and it is, therefore, pro- posed by paragraph 11 to place all such ships (junks of course excepted upon the same footing as vessels holding Imperial registers within the Colony. This step is demanded as a measure of salety.

The contents of chapter II are mainly founded upon part IV of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854. The fact that many steamers run upon the China Coast which at present do not come, (or if at all, only at very distant periods) within the operation of that part of the statute, affords sufficient reason for its enactment here. Section VII goes somewhat beyond the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act on the same subject. The very large and important business which has now grown up connected with the conveyance of Chinese passengers by steamers to and from this Colony to ports not within the purview of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, seems to call for some special legislation. At present this business is altogether unregulated in the points to which section VII refers, a state of things which seem unde- sirable for all parties concerned, whether ship-owners or passengers. Paragraph 3 of this section will, if passed, place in the hands of the Governor in Conucil, for the first time, the power of prohibiting the conveyance of deck passengers by any ship sailing from the Colony. During the more inclement season of the year, such a power may, no doubt, be usefully exercised. The provisions of paragraph 4 of section VII are new. object seems sufficiently expressed not to call for any detailed explanation.

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