GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Ordinance having undergone revision in Committee, is, before passing the Legislative Council, published for general information.
L. D'ALMADA E CASTRO,
Clerk of Councils.
By Order,
Council Room, Victoria, Hongkong, 24th April, 1857.
Title.
Preamble.
Repeal of Ordinan-
HONGKONG.
ANNO VIGESIMO VICTORIA REGINÆ.
No. of 1857.
By His Excellency SIR JOHN BOWRING, Knight, LL.D., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice Admiral of the same, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiairy and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British Subjects in China, with the Advice of the Legislatve Council of Hongkong.
An Ordinance for Registration and Regulation of the Chinese People, and for the Population Census,
and for other Purposes of Police.
[
April, 1857.] Be it enacted and ordained by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the Advice of the Legislative Council thereof, in manner following, that is to say:-
I. Ordinances No. 13 of 1844, No. 7 of 1846, and No. 3 of 1853, and so much of Ordinance No. 12 ces and part of an Or- of 1844 as relates to the charging or investing the Chief Magistrate of Police with any direction or super- intendence of, or control over, the Police Force thereby established, other than such control as any other Magistrate or Justice of the Peace may in his Magisterial capacity exercise, are hereby repealed.
dinance.
Census and Regis
II. The Census and Registration Office presently existing in Victoria shall, for the purposes of this tration Officer estab- Ordinance, be continued and established; together with the Registrar General and other the Officers and lished.
Assistants by whom the duties and business thereof have been hitherto performed.
Appointments of Of-
ficers.
Powers and Duties
eral.
III. The several persons now being the Registrar General, Officers and Assistants of the said Office, shall continue to discharge the said duties and business at their present Salaries during His Excellency's pleasure; and upon any vacancy, His Excellency may from time to time nominate and appoint such Person or Persons to be such Registrar General, Officers, and Assistants respectively, and at such Salary and Salaries as to His Excellency shall seem meet, and also remove him or them at His Excellency's discretion from time to time, and nominate and appoint another or others in his or their room; yet so as that Her Majesty's pleasure shall be taken as to every nomination, appointment, and removal of a Registrar General, and as to every new limitation of Salary under the provisions of this section.
IV. The Registrar General is, by virtue of his Office, and for the execution of this Ordinance, and of the Registrar Gen- not otherwise, a Justice of the Peace, a joint Superintendent of Police, and the Protector of Chinese Inhabitants within this Colony, and as such is bounden to use his best endeavours to prevent the commission of crime, and, if committed, to discover and apprehend the parties guilty thereof, and generally to watch over and protect the said Chinese Inhabitants; and for the purposes aforesaid he is empowered and required to use and exercise all the authoritics of a Justice and Superintendent of Police, and also to enter at any time or times, as he shall find meet, any Building soever within this Colony, or Vessel or Boat soever within the Waters of the same or adjacent thereto, if such Building, Vessel, or Boat shall then have any Chinaman within or on board of the same.
Duties of the other
V. The other Officers and Assistants in the said Census and Registration Office shall be obedient and Officers and Assistants assisting unto the said Registrar General in the execution of this Ordinance.
The Chief Magis- VI. The Powers and Authorities which by the said Ordinance No. 12 of 1844 were vested in the Chief trate's authority to de- Magistrate of Police, are from henceforth vested in and shall be exercised by the Superintendent of Police volve upon the Super for the time being constituted under the said Ordinance, in all matters wherein any of the provisions for the intendent and Regis Census Registration and Protection of Chinese People are not concerned, and by the Registrar General in
trar General.
all matters wherein any of the said provisions are concerned; and the same obedience shall be rendered by the Police Force of this Colony to the orders of the said Superintendent of Police and Registrar General respectively, and to all Rules and Regulations to be by them respectively made under Section Three of the said Ordinance No. 12 of 1844 and this Section, with the approbation of the Governor; due regard being had to the respective matters to which such lowers and Authorities, Rules and Regulations, respectively shall relate.
Division into Dis- VII. The Registrar General, with the approbation of the Governor, shall divide this Colony into tricts, and Numbering. Districts, and cause every House therein, whether occupied by a Chinaman or by a European, to be numbered, and Tickets to be prepared and issued for the purposes of Section Eight; and it shall be the duty of every Chinese Occupier or Inmate of a House, or of a Boat or Vessel having a Certificate or License under this Ordinance, to procure and retain in his possession one such Ticket from the said Registrar General for the purposes of this Ordinance; and every Chinaman not so procuring, or not so retaining such Ticket, or not producing the same whensoever required, shall, unless he shall make proof of some reasonable justifi. cation or excuse, be deemed a vagrant.
Numbers to
and Tickets to be de livered to them.
be VIII. Every Chinaman occupying a House, or any Boat or Vessel as aforesaid, shall cause the Number painted, Lists of In- thereof to be painted and affixed to such House, Boat or Vessel in such wise as the Registrar General shall mates to be exhibited, direct, and shall cause to be inscribed in such wise as he shall direct, upon a board exhibited in some conspicuous part of such House, Boat or Vessel, a true and full List of all the Inmates thereof, distinguishing. in the case of a House the Inmates of the upper and lower floors thereof, for the time being; and shall deliver to every such inmate a Ticket, stamped by the Registrar General, and containing such particulars, and in such form, as he shall also direct; and every such Ticket shall from time to time, and when the holder' thereof shall cease to be such Inmate, be obtained back from him by the said Occupier and cancelled.
IX. Possession by a Chinaman of any of the Tickets mentioned in Sections Seven and Eight shall be to be prima facie proof primâ facie evidence of the delivery thereof to him as an Inmate by the Chinaman therein mentioned as of delivery.
Occupier.
Possession of Tickets
Tho Occupier to be X. Every Chinese Occupier shall be held responsible as Surety for the good conduct of every Inmate responsible for the in- to whom he shall have delivered any such Ticket unless the said Occupier shall show some matter of justi-
fication or excuse.
mates.
Statistical informa-
XI. Every such Occupier is hereby commanded to furnish at all times to the Registrar General what- tion to be furnished soever information the said Registrar General shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance, require of him; and by occupiers.
every Occupier of a House is further commanded, upon the occurrence of any Marriage, Birth, Death, Arrival, or Departure of Inmates within his House, forthwith to report the same to the proper Chinese Officer of his District. Registration Tickets XII. Within Ten Days next after the commencement of any future hiring by a European of a China- in case of Chinese Ser-man as a Servant to reside within the Hirer's house or place of business, or (in case of any such hiring which hath already commenced) within Ten Days from the passing of this Ordinance, such Chinaman shall apply to the said Registrar General for a Registration Ticket, and shall at the same time produce unto the said Registrar General a Certificate of his Hiring under the hand of the said Hirer, and (if so required by the Intter) satisfy the said Registrar General that he hath obtained sufficient Security after Chinese custom for the indemnity of the said birer against his acts and defaults; and thereupon it shall be the duty of the said Registrar General to make out under his Hand the said Registration Ticket, inserting therein such parti
im shall seem meet, ar liver the same
vants resident
Europeans.
with
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