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graph in question is the photograph of the mui tsai indicated by the said serial number.

(3) If any such finger prints appear to have a serial number, and if the said serial number appears in some part of any such register as apparently assigned to some particular mui tsai, it shall, until the con- trary is proved, be assumed that the finger prints in question are the finger prints of the mui tsai indicated by the said serial number.

Objects and Reasons.

1. This Ordinance proposes to make certain amend- ments in the Female Domestic Service Ordinance, 1923, Ordinance No. 1 of 1923, in order to increase its efficiency.

2. Section 2 of this Ordinance prohibits the bring- ing into the Colony of any new mui tsai, but if a mui tsai is already in the Colony the section will not pre- vent her being taken out of the Colony and brought back again, provided that she is registered under the Ordinance before she is taken out.

3. Section 3 of this Ordinance repeals sections 7 and 8 of the principal Ordinance. Section 7 was inserted in the principal Ordinance in its passage through the Legislative Council. It provides that in every prosecution for over-work or ill-treatment of a mui tsai medical evidence shall be given as to the injuries received by the mui tsai, that the magistrate must find whether such ill-treatment amounted to gross cruelty, and that if the magistrate finds gross cruelty the offender must be sentenced to imprison- ment without the option of a fine. The object was the laudable one that cases of gross cruelty should be adequately punished. There are, however, two dangers. One is that even gross cruelty may leave no indications to which a medical witness can point, and the medical evidence might even have the effect of weakening the evidence of gross cruelty. A more serious danger is that inadvertent failure to call medical evidence on a charge under section 6 of the principal Ordinance might lead to the quashing of a conviction. It is even possible that if the charge were one of common assault, and medical evidence were not called, the conviction might be attacked on the ground that section 7 of the principal Ordinance would apply to the charge of assault on a mui tsai as well as to a charge expressly laid under section 6. Section 7 is therefore repealed. Some of its provisions are repro- duced in the new section 18 of the principal Ordinance which is to le enacted by section 7 of this Ordinance. That section will provide that in every prosecution under section 6 of the principal Ordinance the magis- trate shall find whether the acts or omissions proved, if any, amounted to gross cruelty, and if he so finds the accused must be sentenced to imprisonment with- out the option of a fine. The provision that medical evidence must be called is omitted.

4. Section 8 of the principal Ordinance provides that the provisions of the Offences against the Person Ordinance, 1865, and of the Protection of Women and Girls Ordinance, 1897, shall as hitherto apply to mui tsai. To provide that an enactment in force is still in force is, to say the least, unusual, but the insertion

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