September 3rd, 1921.] Regulations for any particular case. As none of these arbitrational boards exist in Hongkong, clause 3 provides for tri- bunals which are to consist of one of the judges as president, and of two other members, one nominated by the Gover- nor and the other by the claimant. The Imperial Act provides for an appeal on a point of law from the arbitration tribunal to the Court of Appeal. Clause 5 provides that the president of the local tribunal may reserve any point of law for the decision of the Full Court, and that the decision of the Full Court on such point of law shall be final. The Im- perial Act provides for an appeal from the Court of Appeal to the House of Lords, but only by leave of the Court of Appeal.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
might be argued that, as the law stands at present, no part of section 4 applies to British subjects, except to those classes specified in sub-section (14). The result would be that any proceedings under the section against a British subject would be illegal, though the nationality of the person in question might be discovered only in the course of the proceedings. It is, therefore, considered advisable to amend sub-section (14) by providing that sub-section (11) only, which deals with the actual deportation, shall not apply to British subjects. except the classes particularly specified.
225
2.--Clause 2 gives the Governor-in- Council a wider power of dealing with tobacco duties in anticipation of a re solution of Legislative Council. The powers now conferred correspond with those entrusted to the Legislative Coun- cil by section 7 of the Ordinance.
3-Clause 3 provides that duty shall be paid on tobacco manufactured in the Colony which is removed into a bonded or licensed warehouse, before removal from such bonded or licensed warehouse.
4. The object of clause 4 is to prevent the smuggling of tobacco
into the Colony by rail. As the law stands at 4. The second amendment effected by present, it is possible for persons to clause 3 of the bill is based on Article 2 bring tobacco into the Colony by rail of the China (Amendment) Order-in- from Chinese territory, and to evade Council, No. 3, 1920, which was publish- detection by alighting with the tobacco 8.-Clauso G saves all Prize Courted in the Gazette of May 20th, 1921. It at any of the stations before the Kow- proceedings from the operation of the is considered necessary to take power loon terminus. As long as they remain Bill.
to deport any person whatsoever who, in on the train and do not remove the the opinion of the Governor-in-Council, tobacco frim the train, they are within has acted or is about to act in a manner the law and cannot be arrested, and de- prejudicial to the public safety, etc.
tection at intermediate stations is dif- 5.-Clause 4 effects an amendment in ficult. Clause 4 requires all tobacco im- Form No. 7 of the Schedule to the Deported by the railway to be consigned portation Ordinance, 1917, by deleting through to Kowloon by railway invoice, the reference to the Peace Preservation and any persons found on the train in Ordinance, 1886.
possession of tobacco not so consigned will be liable to arrest and prosecution.
9.-It may be pointed out that sub- clause (1) of clause provides that if any legal proceedings which is barred by the Ordinance shall have been instituted before the commencement of the Ordin- ance it shall be discharged, subject to such order as to costs which the Court may think fit to make. Sub-clause (4) of the same clause provides that nothing in the clause shall affect a final judgment given before the passing of the Ordin-
ance.
DEPORTATION ORDINANCE.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled an Ordinance to amend the Deportation Ordinance, 1917.
He said: This Bill falls into two por- tions. Clause 2, clause 4 and clause 5 are founded on the recent Aliens registration in the United Kingdom. The important part of clause 3 is founded on a recent Alien Order in Council. I do not know that I need refer in detail to the clauses based on the Aliens' legislation of the United Kingdom, but I would like to refer to section (b) of clause 3. That is the part of the Bill which is based on the Alien amendment Order in Council No. 3 of 1920. It gives the Governor in Coun- cil power to deport any person who it is considered has acted or is about to act in a manner prejudicial to the public
12
safety. That power to deport can only be may call the exercised after what we
long procedure of the Deportation Ordinance has been gone through. It is not a summary power; the person it is proposed to deport has to have a definite charge put before him and is given the opportunity of answering that charge.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY Seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.
The "Objects and Reasons " state: 1.-The object of this bill is to amend the Deportation Ordinance, 1917, by remedying certain apparent defects therein and by inserting certain new pro- visions in order to conform with recent legislation in the United Kingdom.
2.-Clause 2 of the bill is based on a combination of the present section 3 (2) of the Ordinance and the provisions of Article 12 (6) (c) of the Aliens Order, 1920, which reads as follows:-
"A deportation order may be made in
any of the following cases: (c) if the Secretary of State deems it to be conducive to the public good to make a deportation order against the alien." The reference in the existing section to the Peace Preservation Ordinance is out of date, as the Ordinance has not been used for years.
3. The object of the first amendment effected by clause 3 is to remedy a dif- ficulty that might arise from a literal construction of the opening words of section of (14) of the Ordinance.
lt
6.-Clause 5 is new and is based on Article 21 (3) of the Aliens Order, 1920. It provides that any person deported under the Deportation Ordinances, 1917, and 1921, shall be deemed for the pur- poses of the deportation order to retain his nationality as at the date of the order, unless the Governor otherwise directs.
TOBACCO ORDINANCE.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled an Ordinance to amend the Tobacco Ordinance 1916.
He said: This Bill deals, almost entirely, with matters of detail which might be better considered in committee than in the introduction of the Bill on its first reading. I would only like to say that clause 7-which deals with penaltics-proposes to give the Magis- trate power to impose a fine of ten times the duty, instead of the ordinary fine authorised by the present Ordinance, in
any
In
5.-Clause 5 gives certain Railway officials the same powers under the Ordi- nance as are given to revenue officers, the object being to enable arrests and seizures to be made on the train by Rail- way officials.
6. Clause 6 effects two formal amend- ments in section 41 of the Ordinance, both of which tend towards a clearer interpretation of the section.
7. Clause 7 amends section 59 of the Ordinance, which is the general penalty section, by empowering a magistrate to impose a fine of ten times the duty on the tobacco in question, instead of the fine authorised by section 59, whenever he is of the opinion that there has been an intent to avoid payment of duty. There have recently been cases of smug- gling tobacco which have obviously re- quired a pecuniary penalty greater than that authorised by the principal Ordin- ance, and it has been thought advisable to give the magistrate the option of in- posing a fine of ten times the duty, where such will be greater than the present maximum fine. The power of the magis- trate to inflict imprisonment in lieu of or in addition to any fine remains un- altered
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled an Ordinance to amend the Stamp Ordinance, 1921.
He said: Much of this Bill is purely formal; for example, clause 2, which supplies a drafting omission and corrects a drafting mistake in the principal Ordinance. Another part of the Ordin- ance consists of the clauses which pro- pose to collect together and place in the new Ordinance certain regulations which have been made under the principal Ordinance.
case where the magistrate is of opinion that there has been an intent to avoid payment of duty. Lately, large quantities of tobacco have been brought in without paying duty and the fine authorised by the present Ordinance $500-has been quite insufficient. view of the inducement offered to the smuggler to get a large quantity of STAMP AMENDMENT ORDINANCE. tobacco through, Clause 4 is an attempt to close up gaps in the net so as to pro- vide that any tobacco brought by railway shall be brought into Kowloon Station. At present it may be taken off at an intermediate station and in that way Clause 2 deals with the escape duty. powers of, the Governor-in-Council to alter the tobacco duties. Of course, the Legislative Council has full power
this matter but it is ob- viously necessary to have the power to amend the tobacco taxes and the liquor taxes at short notices, to prevent deal- ers getting tobacco out of bond and so escaping new duties. The present clause is not quite full enough to deal with all cases. For example, the Governor-in. Council cannot reduce duties. It might were too high and be found that some it might we desirable to reduce them. At present that cannot be done, but under this clause it will be possible.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY Seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.
The "
Objects and Reasons 1.-The object of this bill is to amend the Tobacco Ordinance in certain res- pects where experience has shown it to be defective.
in
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state:-
It seems more convenient to have them embodied in the Ordinance and the schedule than to have them Clause scattered about in regulations.
splitting." 3 deals with what is called " A section of the principal Ordinance which prohibits splitting-the execution of more instruments than would be ordinarily required for the transaction in order to evade duty thereby; that is to say, if I receive payment of $16 and have two receipts for $8 to avoid the The stamp duty, that is not allowed. prohibition is clear: the difficulty is to enforce it. It is very difficult for the Collector to prove, affirmatively, that there has been splitting to evade duty,
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