CO129-336 - Governor Nathan & Public Offices - 1906 [11-12] — Page 642

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C. D.

R.

D.

THE CHINESE PASSENGER ACT 1855

HONG KONG ORDINANCE 1889.

634

44554

RECE Reef 3 DEC 06

OPINION of the LAW OFFICERS of the CROWN and

MT ROWLATT.

(a)

We are of opinion that the Ordinance as it

stands does not prohibit the Governor of Hong Kong from

granting a license for a single voyage for carrying in-

dentured coolies to a place outside His Majesty's do-

minionw.

There is nothing in either Act to prohibit

it and Schedule B. of the Act of 1855 and Schedule F.

to the Ordinance of 1889 clearly show that the possibil-

ity of such trade was contemplated.

(b)

Whether the instructions referred to are, or

are not, ultra vires depends, in our opinion, upon the

position which the Legislature of Hong Kong occupied in making regulations under Section 2. of the Act of 1855. If it was acting merely as the depository of a special power to make regulations it could not validly confer either upon the Governor or upon the Secretary of State the discretionary power given by Section 11 of Ordinance. We are, however, upon the whole of opinion that the functions of tile Legislature of Hong Kong under

The Legislature the Act of 1855 were not so limited.

the

had enjoyed since 1843 power to make laws for the peace,

Beas