239980-1937-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Widows-and-Orphans-Pension-Amendment-Deportation-British-Subjects-Amendment — Page 1

160

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Draft Bills.

No. S. 88. The following Bills are published for general information:

Short title.

Amendment

of Ordinance

No. 15 of

1908, s. 3 (1)

as amended by Ordin- ance No. 2 of 1931, s. 2 (2).

A BILL

INTITULED

[No. 4-16.3.37.—1.]

An Ordinance to amend the Widows' and Orphans' Pension

Ordinance, 1908.

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 Widows' and Orphans' Pension Amendment Ordinance, 1937.

2. Sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Ordinance, 1908, as amended by sub-section (2) of section 2 of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Amendment Ordinance, 1931, is amended by the addition of the following words after the word "contributors" at the end thereof

"; and provided further that non-European members of the Fire Brigade, other than Clerks, Sub-Officers, Ambulance Dressers and Store Foremen, shall not be eligible and shall be deemed never to have been eligible to be contributors if they have not been contributors before they held these positions".

Objects and Reasons.

1. A considerable number of non-European members of the Fire Brigade Department have not contributed under the principal Ordinance under the erroneous assumption that, like non-European members of the Police Force, they were not liable to contribute.

2. The origin of this assumption has not been elucidated; but it probably arose from the fact that the Police and the Fire Brigade were at one time included in one Department.

3. The officers concerned do not desire to contribute and the collection from them of arrears, plus interest, is impractic- able.

4. It has therefore been decided to exempt non-European members of the Fire Brigade, other than Clerks, Sub-Officers, Ambulance Dressers and Store Foremen, from the provisions of the Ordinance, and to make the exemption retrospective in the manner provided by Clause 2 of this Bill,

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.

March, 1937.