CO129-508-11 Copies of Ordinances and amendments with relating correspondence 17-12-1927 - 17-7-1928 — Page 79

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transfers referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 above. This sub- -ject is dealt with in sub-sections (2) and (3) of the new section 4. Sub-section (4) provides that prisoners of un- - scund mind shall be dealt with in the manner prescribed by the Asylums Ordinance, 1906. Strictly speaking this sub- -section is unnecessary, but it was considered that it would be convenient to direct altention by means fit of the rele- -vant provisions of the Asylums OrdinanCA, Sub-section (1)

of the new зection 4 introduces a provision taken from section 17 of the Criminal Administration Act, 1914, to the affect that a prisoner may be lawfully confined in any prison to which the Ordinance applies. It may be added that sub-sections (2) and (3) of the new section 4 are also based on section 17 of the same Act. The powers there given are in England vested in the Secretary of State for the Home Department, but it is considered that they may be properly given to the Superintendent of Prisons in Hong Kong-

5.

Section 12 and 13 of the principal Ordinance overlapped, and for no apparent reason the maximum penalties under the two sections were not the same. The discrepancy was made more sericua by an unusual provision that section 13 should not apply in any case where the offender was liable to a more severe punish- -ment under any other provision of the Ordinance. The max}{

dinuin penalty under section 12 was more severe than that under section 13. A conviction under section 13 might therefore have been quashed on this ground, and yet it might not be clear in any particular case which of the two sections should apply. Accord- -ingly these two sections are repealed by this Ordinance. Section 4 of this Ordinance repeals section 12 of the principal Ordinance and substitutes a new section dealing with the whole