CO129-252 - Acting Governor Barker & Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1891 [12] — Page 79

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3.

As a matter of drafting

I should have preferred to have seen the old Ordinance re-enacted with the amendments now, passed but inasmuch

as

the old the

Ordinance was based on

opium Convention entered into with China in 1886, it was

thought

desirable at rate for the

any present to leave it standing. On the other hand an amending Ordinance brings into relief the

alterations made.

L

are as

The material alterations

follows: (1) Section 2 2 of the old Ordinance defined "Chest of Opium to mean the package with the opium therein, such as is "usually imported by merchants " in the Colony"," and sections 3 and 6 of the same Ordinance prohibited the import and "possession of raw opium in "quantities

78

quantities less than one okest except in certain cases which it is immaterial to mention. In 1889 the Full Court decided

that a man in possession of the contents of several chest's packed in bags could not be convicted of being in possession of opium "in quantities less "than a chest holding that that expression meant "less than the quantity a chest ~

"could contain!

The object of the section was to prevent smuggling by prokibiting the possession of opium outside the chest in which it was imported;

the

decision at once

gate.

вренед

the

Hence it became necessary to redefine quantities in less than one chest and this has been effected in ~

Section