230766-1936-Supplementary-Draft-Bill--Asylums — Page 4

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detained there until the expiration of his sentence or period of detention or until further order: Provided that an order under this sub-section relating to any prisoner on remand or committed for trial or to any person admitted to the house of detention as a vagrant shall only be made in cases of extreme urgency and on medical grounds.

(3) If any person who has been removed to an asylum under the provisions of sub-section (2) shall, in the opinion of the medical practitioner in charge of the asylum, become of sound mind before the expiration of his sentence or period of detention, the Governor may by warrant under his hand direct such person to be removed to a prison and to be detained there until the expiration of his sentence. The period of detention in the asylum shall be reckoned as part of the sentence.

(4) If any person who has been removed to an asylum under the provisions of sub-section (2) is certified by two medical practitioners to be still of unsound mind at the ex- piration of his sentence or period of detention, such person shall be detained in an asylum until released by the Governor or discharged upon the authority of the medical practitioner in charge of such asylum or until he be otherwise released in due course of law. Every such certificate shall be in the pre- scribed form.

after

16. If at the expiration of the sentence of any prisoner Detention detained in an asylum under section 15 he is still of unsound of prisoners mind, such prisoner may on the written order of a magis- expiration of trate be detained in such asylum until discharged by order sentence. of the Governor or otherwise released in due course of law.

17. The Asylums Ordinance, 1906, the Asylums Repeal of Amendment Ordinance, 1927, and the Asylums Amendment Ordinance, 1935, are repealed.

Ordinance No. 6 of 1906, No. 11 of 1927 and No. 1 of 1935.

Objects and Reasons.

1. This Ordinance consolidates the law relating to asylums and the detention, custody and care of persons of unsound mind, and others, as contained in the Asylums Ordinance, No. 6 of 1906, and two amending Ordinances, No. 11 of 1927 and No. 1 of 1935, repealed by this Ordin-

ance.

2. Section 15 (2) of Ordinance No. 6 of 1906 as enacted by section 2 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1935 is amended by the deletion of the words "or likely to become of unsound mind" and the addition of a proviso to that sub-section.

This amendment, which is incorporated in section 15 (2) of this Ordinance, is made on the instructions of the Secre- tary of State for the Colonies in his despatch No. 205 of 29th May, 1935, to the Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong.

3. A Table of Correspondence is attached showing the nature of the consolidation and the amendments.

April, 1936.

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.