687505-1879-Merchant-Shipping-Consolidation-Bill-Published- — Page 16

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 3RD DECEMBER, 1879.

for the Colonial Secretary to demand for every such licence an annual fee of twenty-five dollars, or at the rate thereof according to the term of such licence; and every such house shall be for the reception of such number of seamen only as shall be expressed in the licence, and shall not be granted until there have been constructed in the house to be licensed suitable rooms to be approved by the Harbour Master; and no such boarding-house shall be a house licensed for the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, nor shall any charge for spirituous or fermented liquor be allowed in

any account for the amount of which any seaman may be indebted, or stated to be indebted, to any person, and such boarding- house shall not be a part of a house, and shall be separated by at least one intervening house on either side of it from any house licensed for such sale as aforesaid; and every such boarding-house shall be open at all times to the visit of any Justice of the Peace, or of the Harbour Master, or of any Inspector of Police. And the Harbour Master may refuse to grant any such licence, and may limit the number and description of seamen to be boarded in each house, and may make rules for the government of such houses, and regulate the charge to be made for board and lodging; and a copy of such rules, shall be hung up in each house for the inspection of the inmates; and the infraction of any one of such rules shall subject the offender in every instance to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five dollars, and for a second offence may deprive the offender, if the keeper of such house, of his licence as an additional punishment.

2. If any person not having obtained a licence for keep- ing a boarding-house for seamen shall keep one, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars;

and the fact of more than one seaman boarding or lodging in the house of any person, shall be primâ facie proof of the keeping of a boarding-house for seamen by such person; but nothing in this Ordinance contained shall be construed to prevent any seaman from having the whole or any part of any unfurnished house for the residence of himself, or his family, and boarding himself therein.

3. Every keeper of a boarding-house for sea men shall cause daily to be entered in a book in English, the name and description of each additional seaman who has, on that day, come to board or lodge at his house, and the name of each seaman who has left his house on that day after being a lodger or boarder therein, and such other particulars as the Harbour Master may direct; and every keeper of a boarding-house shall, on the morning of Monday, in each week, send to the Harbour Master's office a list, copied from his book, of the seamen on that day boarding or lodging in his house, and of those seamen, boarders or lodgers, who left his house on any or either of the intermediate days, and shall also particularize in such list those seamen who wish for immediate employment, and place opposite to the names of those last named, the names of the ships from which they were last discharged; and the Harbour Master shall keep the lists as furnished to him constantly in view, and in a conspicuous part of his office, for the convenience of masters of ships requiring men, and shall also post in a similar manner, if required so to do, such notices for the supply of men by masters of ships as the said masters shall furnish, and any infraction of this paragraph shall render the Boarding House Keeper liable to a penalty not exceed- ing twenty five dollars.

4. Nothing in this section contained shall prevent masters, mates, or engineers of ships from boarding or lodging else- where than at a licensed boarding-house.

5. No seaman, who shall have been actually, shipped by the Harbour Master, or his deputy, on board any vessel in compliance with this Ordinance, shall, during the time for which he is then shipped, be liable to be arrested on civil process, unless the debt or demand shall exceed the sum of five hundred dollars: Provided always, that by the term seaman in this paragraph shall be meant only a person who has, within the space of six months previously, served on board a ship for wages as a seaman, and that the protection from arrest hereby granted shall not be held to extend to any person not coming within such definition, nor in any case to masters, mates, or engineers.

6. Licences issued under this section shall be terminable on the 30th November of each year.

Penalty for keeping an un- licensed board- ing-house. (Ibid, sec. 7.)

Duties of boarding- house keepers with respect

to lists, re- turns, &c., &c.

of their inma- tes. (Ibid, sec. 8.)

Masters mates and Engineers board and

lodge else- where, than in such houses. (Ibid, sec. 9.)

No seaman shipped under this Ordinanca shall, during the term for which he 13 shipped, be Hable to arrest on civil pro- cess, in cer- tain cases, (Ibid, sec. 10.)

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