CHINESE EMIGRATION IN BRITISH SHIPS.
EMIGRATION
CHINESE PASSENGERS' ACT, 1855.
28 and 29 VICTORIA, CAP. 104.
An Act for the Regulation of Chinese Passenger Ships.
Whereas abuses have occurred in conveying Emigrants rom ports in the Chinese Seas: And whereas it is expedient to prevent such abuses: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :---
I.In the construction of this Act, the Torn Chinese Passenger Ship shall include every ship carrying from any port in Hongkong, and every British ship carrying from any port in China or within one hundred miles of the coast thereof, more than twenty passengers, being natives of Asia; the word Colony shall include all Her Majesty's Possessions abroad not being under the Government of the East India Company; the word Governor shall signify the person for the time being lawfully administering the Government of such colony; the term Legislature of Hongkong shall signify the Governor and Legislative Council or other legislative authority of the same for the time being; the word Ship all include all seagoing ves-els ; the ter us Commander and Master of any ship shall include any person for the time being in command or charge of the same; the term End iration Officer shall include every person lawfully acting as emigration officer, immigration agent, or protector of emigrants, and every person authorized by the Governor of any British colony to carry out the Provisions of this Act; and the term British Cans include every person lawfully exercising Consul or authority on behalf of Her Majesty in any foreign port.
shall
II.-It shall be lawful for the Legislature of Hongkong by any ordinance to be by them enacted for the purpose, to make regulatious respecting Chinese passenger ship, and, in the case of British ships, respecting the treatment of the passengers therein while at sea; and until such enactment, the Regulations contained in schedule A to this Act annexed shall be in force: Provided always, that no such ordinance shall come inte operation until Her Majes y's confirmation of the same shall have been proclamed in Hongkong by the Governor thereof.
III.---It shall be lawful for the Governor of Hongkong to declare, by proclamation, for the purposes of this Act and of the said regulations, what shall be deemed to be the duration of the voyage of any Chinese passeng r ship, and by such proclamation to alter the scales of dietary, medicines, and medical comforts contained in the afore- said schedule (A).
IV.-No Chinese passenger ship shall clear out or proceed to sea on any voyage of more than seven days' duration until the master thereof shall have received from an emigration officer a copy of the aforesaid regulations, ada certificate in the form contained in schedule B to this Act annexed, or in such other form as may be prescribed by the said Legislature, which copy and certificate, with any documents to be attached thereto (hereinaf er designated as emigration papers), shall be signed by the said emigration officer, nor until the master stall, with two sufficient sureties, to
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