567532-1929-Supplementary-Draft-Bill---Offences-against-the-Person-Amendment — Page 1

712

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Draft Bill.

No. S. 246.-The following bill, which will be introduced at the next meeting of the Legislative Council, is published for general information :--

C.S.O. 5 in 1961/10.

No 15-3.819.-2]

A BILL

INTITULED

An Ordinance to amend the Offences against

the Person Ordinance, 1865.

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 he cited as the Offences against Short title. the Person Amendment Ordinance, 1929.

2. Section 45 of the Offences against the Person Ordi- Amendment nance, 1865, is amended as follows:-

of Ordinance No. 2 of

(a) by the deletion of the words "either by force 1865, s. 45.

or fraud" in the second line thereof, and by the substitution therefor of the words "by any

means ;

(b) by the insertion of the words "bona fide" immediately before the word claimed " in the sixteenth and seventeenth lines thereof;

(c) by the renumbering of the said section as sub- section (1), and by the addition of the follow- ing sub-section :-

Ordinance

No. 4 of 1897.

(2) for the purposes of this section, the adoptive parent of a child under the age of fourteen years, and the employer of a child under the age of fourteen years, in- cluding the employer of a mui tsai under the age of fourteen years, shall be deemed to have had the lawful care or charge of such child, provided as follows :—

as

(a) that nothing in this sub- section shall be construed affecting any rights vested in or conferred on the Secretary for Chinese Affairs by or under the Protection of Women and Girls Ordinance, 1897; and

(b) that nothing in this sub- section shall be construed as conferring upon any adoptive parent or employer any right of retaining possession, custody or control of any child as against the child's parent or guardian, or as against the child.

3. The following section is inserted in the Offences Insertion against the Person Ordinance, 1865, immediately after of new section 45-

Certain transactions with regard to minors prohibited.

any

section 45A in Ordinance No. 1 of 1865.

45A. (1) Every person who takes part. or attempts to take any part, in any transaction the object or one of the objects of which is to transfer or confer, wholly or partly, the possession, custody or control of any minor under the age of eighteen years for any valu- able consideration shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence against this section, auless such person proves beyond reasonable doubt that