43684-1915-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time--Evidence-Amendment- — Page 37

Port

356

(Counterfoil.)

CHINESE PASsengers Act, 1855.

Asiatic Emigration Ordinance, 1915 (Hongkong).

Outport Licence.

(Hongkong Ordinance No.

Name of ship

Nationality of ship

Name of owners charterers or agents

Maximum number of emigrants

Destination

of 1915, s. 12).

Period within which ship must clear out and proceed to

sea

Fee: $5.00 received.

Date of issue....

191.......

Objects and Reasons,

This Bill should, it is proposed, repeal and supersede the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances.

There are many circumstances connected with Chinese Emigration which, although important at the time of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, are now not of practical consequence; there have been also since the date of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, great changes in the conditions under which Asiatic Emigration is permitted from places or in vessels under British control.

The scheme of this Bill is to endeavour to simplify and compress the rather disconnected provisions of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, and its amending Ordinances; to connect it more sharply and elcarly with its mother Act (the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855), to omit such portions as seem to be at the present day obsolete, unnecessary or forbidden and to bring it up to a stage of modern requirements.

It is difficult, therefore, owing to the much altered features of the Bill when it is compared with those of the existing Ordinances to give a tabulated comparison which may be of complete service without entering into a great, mass of detail.

A general summary of the Bill itself and a general comparative analysis of its divergences from the existing Law seems at any rate desirable. The present Bill is divided into the following parts :-

Part 1, Preliminary Provisions.

HI, Provisions relating to ships carrying

emigrants.

III, Provisions relating to emigrants :-

(a.) Medical Inspection.

(b.) Provisions relating to Passage Brokers.

(e) Provisions as to Emigration Boarding

Houses.

Part IV, Penal Provisions.

לי

V, Miscellaneous.

Part I. Preliminary Provisions. The preliminary pro- visions consist of "definitions" and "explanatory clauses indicating where departure has been made from the pro- visions of the Chinese Passengers Act, 1855, and contain certain exemptions from the provisions of the Act in cases in which Asiatic passengers who cannot be classified pro- perly as emigrants are being carried,

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