558
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 16TH DECEMBER, 976.
Opening cor- respondence
and other mis- demeanors.
Receiving stolen corres pondence.
Allegations to be used in proceedings for offences.
Penalties may be recovered in a summary
way within one year.
[Ibid, sec.23.]
Repeal.
Suspending clause.
Every person who steals or unlawfully takes away a letter bag, or steals or unlawfully takes any correspondence from or out of a letter bag, or unlawfully opens a letter bag, shall be guilty of felony.
Every person who steals any correspondence from a letter bag, or from a Post Office, or from an officer of the Post Office shall be guilty of felony.
Every person who forges, alters, or imitates, or assists in forging, altering, or imitating, any postage stamp issued under this Ordi- nance, shall be guilty of felony.
Every person who uses, offers, utters, disposes of, or puts off any forged, altered, or imitated postage stamp as aforesaid, knowing the same to be forged, altered, or imitated, shall be guilty of felony.
Every person, who is convicted of any felony mentioned in this section shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years and not less than three years, or to be imprisoned for any terin not ex- ceeding two years with or without hard labour.
XXIX. Every person employed by or under the Post Office, who, without awful authority or excuse, opens, or suffers or pro- cures to be opened, any correspondence; or who, without lawful authority or excuse, detains or delays, or procures or suffers to be detained or delayed, any correspondence; or who wilfully delivers any correspondence to any person other than the person to whom the same ought to be delivered, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Every person who fraudulently obtains from any person em- ployed by or under the Post Office, or fraudulently detains, or wilfully secretes, keeps, or detains, any letter bag, cr any corres- pondence which ought to have been delivered to any other person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Every person who fraudulently removes any postage stamp from any correspondence, or wilfully removes from any postage stamp any mark that has been made thereon at any Post Office, or knowingly uses or puts off any postage stamp from which any such mark has been removed, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Every person who is convicted of any misdemeanor mentioned in this section shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour.
XXX. The sections of the Larceny Ordinance (No. 7 of 1865) relating to receiving stolen goods, that is to say, sections LXXV to LXXXII, both inclusive, shall apply to felonies and mis- demeanors committed under this Ordinance; and for that pur- pose, the expression "this Ordinance" when used in the said sections shall be taken to include the present Ordinance.
XXXI. In any proceedings against any person for any offence committed against this Ordinance, in respect of any letter bag, or correspondence, it shall be sufficient to allege such letter bag, or correspondence to be the property of the Postmaster General without mentioning his name, and in any such proceedings against any person employed by or under the Post Office, it shall be sufficient to allege that such person was employed by or under the Post Office, without stating further the nature or particulars of his employment.
'XXXII. All pecuniary penalties for offences against this Ordi-" nance may be recovered in a summary way before a Magistrate, but proceedings for the recovery of such penalties shall be com menced within one year after the offence was committed.
XXXIII. Ordinance No. 8 of 1862 is hereby repealed, but such repeal shall not affect anything lawiully done or commenced to be done thereunder.
XXXIV. This Ordinance shall take effect on a day to be here- after proclaimed by the Governor.
Passed the Legislative Council of Hongkong, this 11th day of December, 1876.
[See Ord. 8 of 1, 1862, Sche- dule A.]
H. E. WODEHOUSE,
Clerk of Councils.
SCHEDULE A.
do solemnly and sincerely declare, that I will not willingly or knowingly open, detain, return, delay, or misdeliver, or cause or suffer to be opened, detained, returned, delayed, or misdelivered, any correspondence which shall come into my hands, power, or custody by reason of my employment by or under the Post Office, except by the consent of the person to whom such corres- pondence shall be directed, or by an express warrant in writing for that purpose under the hand of the Governor of Hongkong, or of Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at the Port where I may be stationed, or except in pursuance and under the authority of any of the provisions of any Ordinance now or hereafter to be in force in the Colony of Hongkong relating to the Post Office of the said Colony.
Declared before me
this
day of
187
f
Justice of the Peace.) or H. B. M.'s Consul. [
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