1890_VENEREAL__DISEASES_ORDINANCE — Page 2

292

Upon the third conviction for keeping a brothel contrary to

provisions of this Ordinance, Ma- gistrate may

shut up the house in which the same is kept.

[* See Ord. No. 6

•of 1862.]

Mode of proof that a house is

- brothel.

[* See Ord. No. 2 of 1860.]

Registrar Gener- al to keep a register of brothels, with names of keepers, &c.

Brothels declared to be such by the Registrar Gener- --al..

Appeal.

Registered brothels to be visited by certain officers.

ORDINANCE No. 12 oF 1857.

Venereal Diseases;

3. Upon the occasion of any person being for the third time convicted of such offence as is aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the Magistrate before whom such conviction shall take place, by warrant under his hand, to remove all the inmates of the house wherein such offender shall have dwelt or resided, and to close up such house, and forbid the same to be reinhabited, unless he shall be satisfied that the same will be. occupied in a proper and legal manner, and not as a brothel within the meaning of this Ordinance, if situated outside of the aforesaid districts, or, either as a registered brothel, or in any other proper and legal manner, if within the said districts or any of them; and that every person reinhabiting such house, without a licence or permission under the hand of the Chief or Assistant Magistrate, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than five hundred current dollars, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months.

4. The averment of two witnesses made on oath or by affirmation, * that any house is occupied as a brothel, may be received as sufficient evidence of such fact; and any person who shall appear, act, or behave himself or herself as master or mistress, or as the person having the care or management of any brothel, shall be deemed and taken to be the keeper thereof, and shall be liable to be punished as such, notwithstand- ing he or she shall not, in fact, be the real owner or keeper thereof.

5. The Registrar General shall keep a register of all brothels, and shall enter in such register the names of the keeper of each of such brothels, and also of the immediate landlord or lessor thereof, also of the Crown lessee or tenant of the plot of ground on which the same may be standing or built, and shall keep it corrected from time to time, according as such keeper, immediate landlord or lessor, or Crown lessee or tenant, respectively, may change, and according as any such house shall cease at any time to be occupied as a brothel; and shall furnish the Colonial Secretary with a copy of such register, and shall inform him from time to time of such corrections as may from time to time be made in such register as aforesaid.

6. Whenever any house shall be, in the opinion of the Registrar General, a house in which women reside, or which they frequent for the purposes of prostitution, the Registrar General shall forthwith declare such house to be a brothel, and shall give notice to the immediate landlord or lessor thereof, or if such immediate landlord or lessor cannot be found or ascertained, then to the Crown lessee of the plot of ground on which the same be built, that such house has been declared by him to be a brothel, and as such, comes within the provisions of the second and third sections of this Ordinance; and in case such immediate landlord or Crown lessee or tenant shall dispute such declaration of the Registrar General, then the party so disputing such declaration shall have an appeal to the Chief or Assistant Magistrate, or to any two Justices of the Peace sitting for either of such Magistrates, who are hereby empowered to adjudicate on such appeals, and whose decision thereon shall be final.

7. Brothels registered under the provisions of section 5 of this Ordinance, shall be liable to be visited by the Registrar General, and by the Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, and Inspectors of Police, and by the Colonial Surgeon or other