17652-1910-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time--Magistrates-Amendment-No-2- — Page 1

330

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

No. S. 160.-The following Bills were read a first time at a Meeting of the Council held on the 18th August, 1910 :-

A BILL

Short

title and construction.

Repeals sec- tion 2 of Ordinance

19 of 1903

and new section substituted therefor.

Harbouring Chinese mar- ried woman without

**renson-

able"

excuse

an offence

punishable summarily.

ENTITLED

An Ordinance to amend the Magistrates Amend-

ment Ordinance, 1903.

Be it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Magistrates Amendment (No. 2) Ordinance, 1910, and shall be read and construed as one with the Magistrates Ordinance, 1890, (hereinafter called "the Principal Ordinance") and this Ordinance and the Principal Ordinance and the Ordin- auces amending the same may be cited together as "The Magistrates Ordinances, 1890-1910".

2. Section 2 of the Magistrates (Amendment) Ordin- ance, 1903, is hereby repealed and the following section is substituted therefor:-

2.-(1.) Every person who without reasonable excuse shall receive or harbour any Chinese woman married according to the laws or customs of China who has left the protection of her husband shall be liable on conviction before a Magistrate in a summary way to a penalty not exceeding $100 or in default of payment to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding three months.

(2.) The Magistrate may in addition to such penalty

order the person convicted to

pay to

the husband of such woman damages not exceed- ing $200 and in default of payment may issue a warrant of distress on the goods and chattels of such husband which shall have the same force and effect as a warrant of distress issued under the provisions of the Principal Ordinance:

Provided always that it shall be a suffi- cient defence to any charge under this section if it is made to appear to the Magistrate that the person so charged had reasonable canse, other than from information supplied by the woman whom the defendant is charged with harbouring, to believe that the woman was a spinster or to believe that she was a widow,”

Memorandum.

Knowingly harbouring a Chinese married woman with- out reasonable excuse is created an offence by Ordinance but difficulty has arisen in proving that the man charged knew the woman harboured to be a married woman. The Bill amends Ordinance No. 19 of 1903 by placing upon the male paramour the duty of ascertaining other than from information supplied by the woman herself whether she was a spinster or a widow.

It also empowers the Magistrate to award damages not exceeding $200 to the aggrieved husband in addition to the penalty prescribed by the Ordinance,

W. REES Davies, Attorney General,