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not from short selling but from the spirit of gambling which exists in almost every breast to some extent and induess men to bay for the rise. Supposing this Ordinance is passed the state of the market will simply be unnatural. There are two classes of operations going ΟΙ in the market, speculative operations if you will, or gambling-balling and beari g. men deliberately operating with a view to a rise, men deliberately operating with a view; to a fall. What remedy will you intro ince to prevent bulling, to prevent a man going into the market for his own purposes and buying shres at a little advance on the mar. ket rate, buying again to-morrow at a little further advance, and doing the same again the next day? That man does as much mischief io his way as the greatest bear that ever figurei on the stock market. It is the uudae apprecia- tion of shares that does the mischief and the in- dacement to men to buy for the rise in the bope that they may be able to sell out before the day for settlement comes and pocket a small proflt. If this Ordinance is passed the market will be left without its natural protection. The very prin- ciple of free trade is that one evil corrects an- other. Balling is an evil, bearing is an evil, but the one counteracts the other, and the ra- sult is that though individuals may suffer still there is no general appreciation or deprociation, and taking the year round shares maintain their value. Your Excellency seas that briefly the position taken up by the share- brokers and the case they wish to put forward is this, they admit the evil, but they do not admit that it is caused by short selling. The evil is exposed in Mr. Ackroyd's memorandum. It is gambling and rash speculation. There is one suggestion I am instructed to make and that is this, that probably one of the causes which has operated most in promoting gambling and rash spyonlation in the Colony, that gamb ling and rash speculation which the hon. mamber who introduced the ill is most anxious to stop, and which the greater proportion of the resid ents of the Colony want stopped, has been the want of any law regulating sharebro ers. One of the greatest evils is that many men who call themselves brokers are not only brokers but also jobbers and dealers, and that perhaps as much as anything else. thing wrong in itself, has given rise to a very great deal of the. gambling and rash speculation that has gone on in the Colony in shares. The Brokers' Association are most anxious the Government should assist them in purifying the profession of brokers in this Colony, and so far as they can see the only way in which that can be done is by licensing brokers, compelling every broker to take out a licence and pay a fee for it and refusing to license any broker who is not a member of an Association with rules and re- gulations approved by the Government and which provide that he shall undertake, on oath possibly, not to act as a jobber but to conflas bimself to his legitimate business as a broker. If this Bill would interfere to prevent that excessive speculation and gambling from which the brokers in common with others have Buffered, they would be glad to be heard in support of it instead of against it, but with their knowledge of share dealing in this colony, believing if it had been in operation during the last three years it would not have prevent- ed the ruin of one man, they come hers to ex- deavour by my mouth to put that state
of the case before the Council and ask you not to pass the Bill. If any Bill is intro duce which will fairly remedy these evils the sharebrokers will be most happy to go. operate, and they offer that one suggestion to the Legistative Council. They are most auxions that some Ordinance should be passed to regulate brokers and to restrain them from acting both as brokers and jobbers, for they firmly believe some of the evil has arisen from the fact that there tre toany men who in violation of their duty as brokors, acting as agents between principals, convert themselves into principals and bay and sell shares without informing their principals. In that way a door has been opened for what may be called traudulent dealing and rash and speculative dealing of the most barefaced charac- ter. I thank your Exosilency and the Council for the patience and kindness with which you have listened to me, and I thank you again on behalf of the Sharebrokers' Association for permitting them to be heard to-day.
Hon. J. J. KESWICK-Your Excellency, in
rising to propose the second reading of the Bill to amend the law in respect to the sale of shares, I would like in the first place to offer a few re- marks upon the very able address made by the learned Counsel who has just sat down. I feel the greatest satisfaction as the promoter of this ill with the free discussion il bas given rise | to in the Colony, and I am particularly glad that le Sharobrokers' Association has been heard by Counsel before this Council, as in the event of the Bill being passed it will at all events be clear that the opinions of all concerned have been fully represented. It is a remarkable thing to me in connection with all the discussion that has taken place on the subject of this Bill that in no instance have I heard of any one who dissents from the principle which is involved in it. It appears to be admitted by the learned Counsel and by every one whom I have heard that a blight exists in Hongkong, a blight which has done great injury to a large proportion of the community, and I think it must be generally admitted that all parties are very auxious that some remedial measure should be passed which will remove the very unsatisfactory state of affairs at prosent existing as regards dealing iu stocks in this Colony. I have been very much strue, while listening to the gentleman who has just sat down. with the fact that he repeatedly stated that this Bill if passed would have no effect at all, and naturally the question is ggested to one's mind that if the Bill will ave no effect, why should there bs such serious pposition to it, more especially when it is dmitted that its design is worthy of com asudation? I must say that I hslieve that the opposition shown to this Bill is chiefly because of the restrictive character it would hare on the sale of shares by those persons who do not possess them, and I am satisfied that I am right, I am convinced I am right, in saying that the unlimited sale of hares without any numbers or marks upon them has had the effect of ruining a very large percentage of men in this Colony. I im unable to call to mind the precise words 18ed by the learned Counsel, but he said some. shing to the effect that no harm had been lone by the short selling of shares, but that all the barm had been done by persons who bought for the rise.. I would bag to point out to the learned Counsel that when a Company, as I will suppose, has 50,000 shares, it is ont- rageous that it should be legal for any person, one single person, to sall 150,000 of those shares. In principle that is done every day. I have ex- ggerated, perhaps. I will be more moderate and say a Company of 5,000 shares, and it is possible for an operator to sell, without holding a single ane, to the extent of 15,000 shares, three times the number in existones in the Colony. Such a thing is pfectly possible and is done in priu- ziple every day. I observe also that the learned Jounsel stated that the evil chiefly existed in the Fant that people bought for a rise, but as I point- ad out when speaking before on the same subject- the man who buys for a rise, who hopes that rise will take place three months after he has bought his hope is vain, his hour never comes. The learned counsel says the seller has the shares and that it is the buyer who is the ball. Not at ll. It is the seller who balls the shares, and he plants them here, there, and everywhere and waits till the time comes for them to be taken up, then down go the shares and the man who sold them buys back at a depreciated prioa the identical shares sold three months previously, without parting with a single dollar. That is what I call oom- mercial immorality and that at the present ma- mont is a recoguised system in this Colony. The learned counsel referred to an Aot of George II. I trust that not being a lawyer I may be excused if I display a little ignoranes on the question. I should like to know if that Bill, which I think the learned gontleman stated existed for 120 years or thereabouts as the law of England and was not repealed till the 23rd year of the reign of her presout Majesty, I should like to know whether when that Bill was ropealed in England it was rapealed because some other enactment rendered it more or less unnecessary, and I should like to ask the Aoting Attorney General whether when that Bill was repealed, the Ast repealing was made operative in this Colony. I should not be surprised to find that the Act of Popaal nevar applied to the Colour and that at the present moment these transactions in shares which I dosire to put a stop to by this exceedingly modest Bill are after
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