33112-1913-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time--Opium-Amendment — Page 8

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(1.) convicted of any criminal offence by the Supreme Court of the Colony or by His Majesty's Supreme Court in China, or

(2.) convicted twice of any criminal offence and whether of the same character or not by a Magisterial Court in the Colony, or

(3.) convicted of any criminal offence by a Magisterial Court in the Colony and after his deportation had been con- victed under the provisions of section 8 of the Deportation Ordinance, 1912,

or

(4.) convicted by a Magisterial Court in the Colony of any offence under the penalty for which he was liable to the punishment of flogging,

the Magistrate may, in addition to the punish- ment awarded for such offence, direct that the offender be flogged."

Objects and Reasons.

The object of this Ordinance is to consolidate and to enlarge the powers which Magistrates possess of inflicting corporal punishment upon male offenders convicted of certain classes of offences.

Under the existing law the Magistrates have power to inflict corporal punishment in a considerable number of cases, for example, on a conviction of stealing an ornament or other chattel from the person of a woman or child (Larceny Ordinance, 1865, and Magistrates Ordinance, 1890); of committing an act of gross indecency with a male person under the age of 13 (Magistrates Ordinance, 1912), or of committing an indecent assault (Magistrates Ordinance, 1912).

The Magistrate has also power to inflict corporal punish- ment on youths in various cases and also in other cases whether the offender is a recidivist.

Under the present Bill power is also given to a Magis- trate to inflict corporal punishment in cases of kidnapping (sections 44 and 45 of the Offences against the Persons Ordinance, 1865), a power which under the present law only existed on a second conviction; in cases of unlawful detention or decoying of male persons for emigration pur- poses (Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889), in which cases the Magistrate already had the power of inflicting corporal punishment upon recidivists; in cases where stowaways and their abettors are concerned and lastly in certain res- tricted cases in which a banished person unlawfully returns to the Colony prior to the expiration of the term of his banishment.

JOHN A. BUCKNILL, Attorney General.

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