CO129-403 - Governor Sir May Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1913 [8-10] — Page 155

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Enclosure 2.

156

Memorandum relative to the proposed Asiatic Emigration Bill. This Bill should, it is proposed, repeal and supersede the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1899 and its ending Ordinances.

There are many circumstances connected with Chinese Emigration which, although important at the time of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1856, are now not of practical consequence; there have been also since the date of the Chinese Emigration Ordinanced, 1899, great changes in the conditions under which Asiatic Emigration is permitted from places or in vessels under British control.

The seheme of this Bill is to endeavour to simplify and com- -press the rather disconnected provisions of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance 1899 and its amending Ordinances; to comect it more sharply and clearly with its mother Act (The Chinese Passengers Act 1855), to omit such portions as seem to be at the present day obsolete, unnecessary or forbidden and to bring it up to a stage of modern requirements,

It is difficult, therefore, owing to the mich altered features of the Bill when it is compared with those of the existing Ordinances to

give a tabulated comparison which may be of complete service without enering into a great mass of detail.

▲ general summary of the Bill itself and a general comparative

analysis of its divergences from the existing Law seems at any rate

desirable. The present Bill is divided into the following parts;-

Part I, Preliminary Provisions.

·

II. Provisions relating to ships carrying emigrants. III, Provisions relating to emigrants.

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Medical Inspection.

Provisions relating to Passage Brokers.

Provisions as to Enigration Boarding Houses.

IT, Penal Provisions.

7. Miscellaneous.

Part I. Preliminary Provisions. The Preliminary provisions

consist of "definitions" and "explanatory clauses" indicating where

departure has been made from the provisions of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1865 and contain certain exemptions from the provisions of the Act in cases in which Asiatic passengers who cannot be classified properly as emigrants are being carried.

Part

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