Short title.
Declaratory
clause.
Interpreta-
tion.
20
mui-tsai as a class enjoy a standard of comfort and well-being much superior to that obtaining in their own homes and there is little likelihood that they will be persuaded against their better judgment to exchange the sheltered security of their present life for the hardships which await them in the world outside. Two weeks have elapsed since the widely advertised passing of the Ordinance, and not one application has yet been made to the Sec- retary for Chinese Affairs. The methods of dealing with any such applications that may be made hereafter will depend on their number. If they are, as I should expect, very few, each individual case can be dealt with "ad hoc." If they should be very numerous some com- prehensive scheme must be devised but at present it seems that it would be waste of labour to make elaborate arrangements to meet a situation which seems most unlikely to arise.
I have, etc.,
R. E. STUBBS,
Enclosure 1 in No. 13.
HONG KONG.
No. 1 of 1923.
Governor, etc.
I assent to this Ordinance.
R. E. STUBBS,
Governor.
15th February, 1923.
An Ordinance to regulate certain forms of female domestic service.
[15th February, 1923.]
BE IT ENACTED by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows :—
PART 1.
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Female Domestic Service Ordinance, 1923. 2. Whereas certain persons have erroneously supposed that the payment of money to the parent or guardian or employer of a female child, such payment purporting to be in return for the transfer of certain parental rights, may confer certain rights of property in the child and certain rights of retaining possession, custody and control of the child as against the child's parent or guardian, and as against the child herself, it is hereby declared and enacted that no such payment can confer any such rights whatsoever upon the person making such payment or upon any other person.
3. In this Ordinance :-
(a) "Mui-tsai " includes :—
(i) every female domestic servant whose employer for the time being shall have made, directly or indirectly, within or without the Colony, any payment to any person for the purpose of securing the services of such female as a domestic servant;
(ii) every female domestic servant whose employer for the time being shall, within or without the Colony, have acquired the custody, possession or control of such female from, or upon the death of, any former employer who made any such payment as aforesaid.
"
(b) "Prescribed means prescribed by regulations made under
Ordinance.
this
21
PART II.
4. No person shall hereafter take into his employment any mui-tsai.
No mui-trai to be engaged hereafter.
5. No person shall hereafter take into his employment any female domestic No female servant under the age of 10 years.
domestic servant under 10 to be engaged hereafter.
6. (1) No employer of a mui-tsai shall over-work or ill-treat such mui-tsai, or Treatment subject such mui-tsai to any punishment to which such employer might not reason of mui-tsai. ably subject his own daughter.
(2) Every employer of a mui-tsai shall provide such mui-tsai with sufficient food and clothing of a reasonable kind, and, in case of illness, with such medical attend- ance as such employer might reasonably have been expected to provide for his own daughter.
ill-treatment.
7. (1) In every prosecution for over-work or ill-treatment of a mui-tsai medical Procedure evidence shall be given before the magistrate trying the case as to the injuries in cases of received by such mui-tsai, and the magistrate shall find whether such ill-treatment amounted, in his opinion, to gross cruelty or not.
(2) In the event of such magistrate finding that such ill-treatment amounts to Penalty for gross cruelty, the offender shall not be given the option of paying a fine but shall be gross cruelty. sentenced by the magistrate to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.
8. The provisions of the Offences against the Persons Ordinance, 1865, and of the Protection of Women and Girls' Ordinance, 1897, shall, as hitherto, apply to and
include mui-tsai.
Applicability of Ordinances
Nos. 2 of 1865 and 4 of 1897 to mui-tsai.
9.1) No mui-tsai shall hereafter be transferred from one employer to another : No mui-tsai Provided that upon the death of the employer of any mui-tsai it shall be lawful for to be the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to make any order which he may think fit regarding transferred the transfer of such mui-tsai to a new employer.
(2) Every person-who-after the date of the coming into operation of this Ordinance shall become the actual employer of a mui-taai by reason of the death of the former employer of such mui-tsai, or for any other reason, shall report such fact in the prescribed manner within one week after he shall have become the actual employer of such mui-tsai.
horeafter from one
employer to another except on death of the former employer.
10. Any mui-tsai who wishes to be restored to the custody of her parent or natural Restoration guardian, and any mui-tsai under the age of 18 years whose parent or natural guardian to parent or wishes such mui-tsai to be restored to his custody, shall, without any payment guardian. whatsoever be restored to such custody unless the Secretary for Chinese Affairs shall see some grave objection in the interest of such mui-tsai to such restoration.
11. Every mui-tsai shall, as hitherto, have the right to apply to the Secretary for Right to Chinese Affairs, and upon any such application it shall be lawful for the Secretary apply to the for Chinese Affairs to make any order which he may think fit regarding the custody, Secretary for control, employment and conditions of employment of the applicant.
PART III.
Chinese Affairs.
12. (1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to make regulations for Regulation. the following purposes :-
(a) the registration of mui-tsai and the keeping of such registers up to date; (b) the remuneration of mui-tsai;
(c) the inspection and control of mui-tsai and former mui-tsai;
(d) generally, for the purpose of carrying out the policy of this Ordinance.
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