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markets elsewhere to replace those lost and have built up a consider- The able export trade with Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. trade outlook appears brighter and some firms are installing new machinery and plant in anticipation of improved trade in the near future.
Dangerous Trades.--Glass making, boiler chipping and firework making. Visits of inspection have been made to all places where these trades are carried on. No breach of the ordinance has been discovered.
Building material etc.-The practice of engaging children to carry coal, bricks and sand up the Peak, once so common and the Isolated subject of so much comment has almost entirely ceased. cases still occur where children are found helping their mothers but they are not now regularly employed and engaged by contractors for this work.
XII. Legislation.
Twenty-eight ordinances were passed during 1927. The most important were the following.
The Factory (Accidents) Ordinance. No. 3, gives power to make regulations for the purpose of preventing accidents. The regulations which have been made are short and simple. In this matter it is necessary to proceed here by easy stages until Chinese public opinion has been more fully educated on the subject. In any case, the proximity of China makes it impossible to proceed too far on European lines while China lags so far behind.
The Basel Evangelical Missionary Socitey Incorporation Ordin- ance, No. 7, restores this mission to it pre-war status and position.
The Public Revenue Protection Ordinance, No. 9, provides a method of imposing or altering taxation rapidly and secretly, with the object of defeating attempts to take advantage of the old rate of taxation, or freedom from taxation, by means of accelerated clearances from bond or otherwise. It gives the Governor power to impose or alter taxation provisionally, and it provides that the taxation so imposed or altered is to be operative from the actual making of the order by the Governor. The Governor's order remains in force for only four months at most, and it ceases to be in force before that time if the proposals embodied in it are rejected by the Legislative Council. If the Governor's order is not ratified by Legislative Council any excess taxation paid has to be refunded.
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measures to searching the shups and their passengers so far as may be practical, before they sail from Hong Kong. The Ordinance contains a suspending clause und was not put into operation in 1927.
The Chinese Extradition Amendment Ordinance, No. 17, is an attempt to make possible again extradition from Hong Kong to China which had been rendered impossible by the abnormal constitutional condition of China. It enables the Governor to act on a request received from any person which he may declare to be or to represent the person or persons actually exercising authority in any province or other territory which has at any time formed part of the Republic of China.
XIII. Miscellaneous.
EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.
Two hundred and eighty five thousand, five hundred and ninety three emigrants (285,598) left Hong Kong for various places during the year 1927. Of these, 138,263 were carried in British ships and 147,300 in Foreign ships.
One hundred and eighty one thousand, and one hundred (181,100) returning emigrants were reported to have been brought to Hong Kong from the several places to which they had emigrated either from this colony or from coast ports, as against 128,661 in 1926. On these, 100,889 arrived in British ships and 80,211 in Foreign ships.
Statement of number of emigrants to Straits Settlement 1915 to 1927 compared with total Chinese emigration.
No. of Emigrants
to Straits Settlement.
Total No. of Emigrants.
1915
41,278
68,275
1916
82,797
117,653
1917
63,292
96,298
1918
8,019
43,830
1919
11,638
59,969
1920
43,935
105,258
1921
87,324
156,011
1922
50,356
98,393
1923
65,584
120,224
1924
75,682
129,859
This
1925
97,552
140,534
1926
157,285
216,527
1927
202,408
285,593
The Suppression of Piracy Amendment Ordinance. No. 15, provides for the abolition of the present system by which ship owners have to give bonds binding them to provide grilles and to make certain other structural alterations of their ships, to employ guards, and to carry out certain other anti-piracy measures within certain portions of their voyages from and to Hong Kong. system was probably necessary originally, but it has now been decided t leave the question of anti-piracy measures on board to the ship- owners themselves, and to confine the Government anti-piracy
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