193617-1932-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Police-Force-Prisons-Opium-Amendment — Page 20

(C.S.O. 1 in 4299/32).

1483

[No. 44-6.10.32.-1.]

A BILL

INTITULED

An Ordinance to amend the Opium Ordinance, 1932.

BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows: :==m

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Opium Amend- Short title. ment Ordinance, 1932.

2. Section 10 of the Opium Ordinance, 1932, is amended Amendment by the addition of the following proviso at the end thereof :-

"Provided that such power of appointment is to be exercised only where local circumstances make the establish- ment of Government opium shops difficult."

"or a

of Ordinance

No. 7 of 1932, s. 10.

3. Sub-section (2) of section 13 of the Opium Ordin- Amendment ance, 1932, is amended by the deletion of the words passenger holding a permit under section 20."

of Ordinance No. 7 of 1932, s. 13.

4. The following sub-section is added at the end of Amendment section 13 of the Opium Ordinance, 1932:-

(3) No prepared opium or opium dross shall be sold or purchased otherwise than for cash.

of Ordinance No. 7 of 1932, s. 13.

5. The proviso to section 20 of the Opium Ordinance, Amendment 1932, is repealed.

6. Section 22 of the Opium Ordinance, 1932, is amended by the deletion of the words "other than the prepared opium specified in the proviso to section 20),"'

of Ordinance No. 7 of 1932, s. 20.

Amendment No. 7 of

of Ordinance

1932, s. 22.

Objects and Reasons.

1. In Article I of the Opium Agreement signed at Bangkok on the 27th of November, 1931, it was provided that the retail sale and distribution of opium should take place only from Government shops or, where local circumstances make the establishment of Government shops difficult, from shops managed under Government supervision, by persons appointed by the Government for that purpose and remunerated by a fixed payment and not by a commission on sales.

2. This Ordinance accordingly adds a proviso to section. 10 of the principal Ordinance making it clear that the power to appoint suitable persons to sell prepared opium is to be exercised only where local circumstances make the establish- ment of Government opium shops difficult.

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