182822-1931-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Merchant-Shipping-Amendment — Page 1

454

P

Draft Bills.

No. S. 149.—The following bills are published for general information :-

C.S.O. 2821/27.

[No. 5.-8.4.31.-2.]

A BILL

Short title.

Amendment

of Ordinance

No. 10 of 1899, s. 4 (2).

Amendment

of Ordinance

No. 10 of 1899, s. 44.

Suspending clause.

INTITULED

An Ordinance to amend further the Merchant

Shipping Ordinance, 1899.

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

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Merchant Ship- ping Amendment (No. 2) Ordinance, 1931.

2. Section 4 (2) of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899, is amended by the addition of the following proviso

at the end thereof :-

Provided further that it shall be lawful and shall be deemed always to have been lawful for the Governor in Council to grant special exemp- tion, which may be subject to any conditions he may impose, from all or any of the require- ments of this sub-section in the case of any ship regularly plying between the Colony and Dosing, Swabue (Shanmi), Ping Hoi, Ma Kung, Sha Yu Chung, Nam 0, Tip Fuk, ✪ Tau or any other non-treaty port if the master and mate shall have passed a special examination before the Harbour Master and shall be approved by him for service on such voyages.

3. Section 44 of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899, is amended by the deletion of the words "a fee of one dollar" in the last line thereof and by the substitution therefor of the words "such fee as the Governor in Council shall prescribe ".

4. This Ordinance shall not come into operation unless and until the Governor notifies by Proclamation that it is His Majesty's pleasure not to disallow the same and there- after it shall come into operation upon such day as the Governor shall notify by the same or any other Proclama- tion.

Objects and Reasons.

The prac

It has been the practice to grant special exemption from the requirements of section of the Merchant Ship- ping Ordinance, to certain small steamers holding Hong Kong passenger licences regularly plying between the Colony and places not open to general trade. tice would seem to require an amendment of the section, which is relaxed by its proviso in the case of river steamers and trawlers and which was further relaxed in 1917, in the case of river steamers, for a period of 61⁄2 years, by Ordinance No. 13 of 1917 and Notification No. 432 of 1923. Section 2 of this Ordinance accordingly adds a third proviso to section 4 (2) of the principal Ordi- nance. Section 3 amends section 44 of the principal Ordinance by substituting the words "such fee as the Governor in Council shall prescribe" for the words “a fee of one dollar" which is considered an inadequate sum to charge for the informative abstract which is to be supplied under the section. Section 4 of this Ordinance is the suspending clause usual in the case of an Ordinance relating to Merchant Shipping.