PIRACY PREVENTION ORDINANCE, 1914

PIRACY PREVENTION ORDINANCE, 1914

No. 23 of 1914.
An Ordinance to amend the law relating to the observance
of precautions against piracy.

[28th August, 1914.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Piracy Prevention
Ordinance, 1914.





2. In this Ordinance,

(a) Launch means any vessel used in navigation not
exceeding sixty tons net registered tonnage in the propul-
sion of which any use is made of any mechanical means
other than oars and sails.
(b) Master includes any person (except a pilot) having
command or charge of any ship.
(c) Passenger includes any person on a launch or ship
other than the master and crew and the owner, his family
and servants.

(d) Ship incans any vessel used in navigation exceed-
ing sixty tons net registered tonnage in the propulsion of
which any use is made of any mechanical means other than
oars and sails.

3. No launch or ship shall leave or attempt to leave the
waters of the Colony on a voyage to Amoy, Swatow, Macao,
Kwong Chau Wan, Hoihow, or Haiphong, or to any port
or place on the Canton River or the West River or any
river or estuary in the province of Kwong Tung or the
province of Kwong Sai, or to any port or place in either
of the said provinces, unless the owners, agents, charterers
or licensees of the said launch or ship shall have duly
entered into a bond as hereinafter required and unless such
bond shall be subsisting and valid in all respects, and if
any launch or ship shall leave or attempt to leave the
waters of the Colony on any such voyage unless the said
bond shall have been duly entered into and shall be subsist-
ing and valid in all respects the master of the said launch
or ship and the owners, agents, charterers and licensees
shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall
be liable upon conviction either summarily or on indict-
ment to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one year
and to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.

4. No launch shall carry any passenger from or to any
place in the Colony unless the owners, agents, charterers or
licensees of the said launch shall have duly entered into a
bond as hereinafter required and unless such bond shall be
subsisting and valid in all respects, and if any launch shall
carry any passenger from or to any place in the Colony

See G.N. No. 15 of 1922.





unless the said bond shall have been duly entered into and
shall be subsisting and valid in all respects the master of
the said launch and the owners, agents, charterers and
licensees shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor
and shall be liable upon conviction either summarily or
on indictment to imprisonment for any term not exceeding
one year and to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars :
Provided that this section shall not apply to the carriage
of passengers between places within the limits of the Har-
bour of Victoria.

5. It shall be lawful for the Harbour Master to refuse to
grant any permission or issue any document or do any act
necessary to enable any launch or ship to leave the waters of
the Colony or a port in the Colon in respect of any launch
or ship with regard to which he shall have reasonable cause
to anticipate that any offence against the provisions of this
Ordinance is about to be committed.

6. The bond hereinbefore referred to shall be entered into
by the owners, agents, charterers or licensees with two sureties
approved by the Captain Superintendent of Police and shall
in the case of a launch be in the sum of one thousand dollars
and in the case of a ship be in the sum of five thousand
dollars and shall be conditioned for the observance by the
said owners, agents, charterers or licensees and their servants
and employes and any person to whom the said launch or
ship may be leased or chartered and the master, crew and
staff of the said launch or ship of all the regulations made or
to be made under this Ordinance.

7. The said bond may be in the form in the Schedule with
such alterations, omissions and additions,, if any, as may be
necessary.

8.-(1) If at any time either of the sureties to any such
bond shall in the opinion of the Captain Superintendent of
Police become or be not a proper person to be a surety to
such bond, it shall be lawful for the Captain Superintendent
of Police to give notice in writing to the owners, agents,
charterers or licensees that such is his opinion, and on the
expiration of seven days from the service of such notice the
said bond shall for the purposes of section 3 be deemed to
be no longer subsisting and valid.

* As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





(2) Any such notice may be served either personally or by
delivery thereof to some adult at the last-known address of
the said owners, agents, charterers or licensees, or by register-
ed letter addressed to the said owners, agents, charterers or
licensees at the said address.

9. In any case in which it is alleged that a breach has
occurred of the conditions of any bond entered into in
pursuance of the provisions of this Ordinance, it shall be
lawful for a magistrate on the application of the Captain
Superintendent of Police to issue a summons calling upon the
persons by whom the bond was entered into to shew cause
why the sum secured by the said bond should not be forfeited:
Provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to
affect any other means of enforcing the said bond.

10. On the hearing of such summons, the magistrate shall
first receive such evidence as may be offered on behalf of the
Captain Superintendent of Police and then such evidence, if
any, as may be offered on behalf of the defendants, and if
after hearing the whole of such evidence he is of opinion that
any breach has occurred of the condition of the bond he
shall, subject to the proviso in section 11, declare the sum
secured by the bond to be forfeited.

11. It shall be lawful for a magistrate to proceed to hear
and determine any such summons in the absence of one or
more of the defendants whether such defendant shall have
been served with the said summons or not: Provided that
no declaration of forfeiture shall be made as against any
person who shall not have been served with the said sum-
mons.

12. With reference to any such summons, a magistrate
shall have as full powers as he shall have with reference to
any other matter over which he has jurisdiction.

13. With reference to the recovery of the sum so declared
to be forfeited, a magistrate shall have as full powers as he
shall have with reference to the recovery of any fine. or other
sum of money which he shall have jurisdiction to impose or
order to be paid.

As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





14. Without prejudice to any other method of proof, a
launch or ship shall be deemed to have left or to have
attempted to leave the waters of the Colony on a voyage to
any particular port or place if information that it was about to
leave on such a voyage shall have been given by or on behalf
of the master, owner, agents, charterers or licensees upon
application for any permission necessary for enabling the
said launch or ship to leave the waters of the Colony or a
port in the Colony, and a launch or ship shall be deemed to
have left the waters of the Colony on a voyage to any par-
ticular port or place if it shall have called or touched at such
port or place at any time within ten days after leaving the
waters of the Colony.

15.-(1) Every police officer, and every guard and watch-
man within the meaning of any regulations made under this
Ordinance, shall have power to search any launch or ship to
which this Ordinance applies and its stores and equipment,
the crew and staff and their belongings, the passengers and
their goods and baggage, and the cargo, and may do all such
acts as may be reasonably necessary in order to carry out
any such search effectually.

(2) The police officer in charge of any searching party,
and any police officer superior to him, shall have power to
detain any such launch or ship until in his opinion the said
searches shall have been completed.

(3) No action shall lie against any police officer, guard or
watchman in respect of any act bona fide done or omitted to
be done in connexion with any such search.

(4) Every person who obstructs any such search shall
upon summary conviction be liable to a line not exceeding
two hundred and fifty dollars and to imprisonment for any
term not exceeding three months.

(5) Nothing in this Ordinance shall be construed as
affecting any other powers of search possessed by any police
officer.

16. No order of any kind whatsoever shall be given, and
no threat or inducement, direct or indirect, shall be made or
held out, and no pressure shall be exerted, and no advice
shall be offered, which might have the effect of influencing

* As amended by Law Rev. Ord, 1924.





any person to fail to observe any of the provisions of this
Ordinance or of any regulations made thereunder, and every
person who shall give any such order, or make any such
threat, or hold out any such inducement, or exert any such
pressure, or offer any such advice, shall be deemed to be
guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be liable upon conviction
either summarily or on indictment to imprisonment for any
term not exceeding one year and to a fine not exceeding five
hundred dollars.

17. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to make
regulations for the purposes of section 6 prescribing the
precautions to be observed with a view to the prevention of
piracy.

18. The owners, agents, charterers and licensees of every
latinch or ship which by any regulations made under this
Ordinance shall be required to carry watchmen or guards
shall be jointly and severally liable to pay to the Treasurer
such monthly sum for each watchman or guard as may be
fixed by the said regulations, and any such sum in respect
of payment of which default is made may, without prejudice
however to any proceedings already taken or to be taken on
any bond entered into in accordance with the provisions of
this Ordinance, be recovered as a fee payable to the Crown
within the meaning of the Crown Remedies Ordinance, 1875.

19. This Ordinance shall not apply to any launch on
occasions on which it is being used solely for purposes of
pleasure.

20. The Governor in Council shall have power to exempt
any launch or ship or class of launch or ship from the
provisions of this Ordinance either generally or for a specified
period or for a specified voyage orelass of voyages and shall
have power in his absolute discretion to withdraw at any
time any exemption so granted.

[s. 21, rep. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.]

* As aniended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





SCHEDULE. [s. 7.]

BOND.

The Piracy Prevention Ordinance, 1914.

KNOW ALL MEN by these presents that We ....................................
............................. of
and ............................................ of
and ........................of
are held and firmly bound to His Majesty the King His Heirs and Successors
in the sum of ........ thousand Dollars Hongkong Currency to be paid
to His said Majesty His Heirs and Successors for which payment to be
well and truly made we bind ourselves and each of its our and each of our
heirs executors and administrators jointly and severally by these presents.
Scaled with our seals and dated the day of .............................
One thousand Nine hundred and ...........................

WHEREAS the said ........and ..............
.............................are the owners agents charterers and licensees
of the ship (launch) ........................

NOW THF CONDITION Of the above-written bond or obligation is such
that if the said owners agents charterers and licensees and their servants and
employes and the master officers crew and staff of the said ship (launch)
and any person to whom the snid ship (launch) may be leased or chartered
shall comply with all the provisions of the Piracy Prevention Ordinance,
1914, and with all the regulations made or to be made under the said
Ordinance THEN the above-written bond or obligation shall be void otherwise
the same shall remain in full foree and virtue.

Signed sealed and delivered by }
the said ..........
in the presence of .........

Signed scaled and delivered by }
the said ..........................
in the presence of........

Signed sealed and delivered by }
the said ..........
in the presence of ...........

No. 24 of 1914, incorporated in No. 2 of 1866.

As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.
[Originally No.23 of 1914. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. No launch or ship to leave on certain voyages unless a bond has been entered into. No launch to carry passengers except within the Harbour unless a bond has been entered into. Clearance. Etc, may be refused where reasonable ground to anticipate that an offence is about to be committed. Nature of bond required. Form of bond. Schedule. Procedure in case of invalid surety. summons to obligors in case of breach. Forfeiture of sum secured by bond. Hearing in the absence of defendant not served. General powers of magistrate. Powers of magistrate with reference to recovery of penal sum declared to be forfeited. Launch or ship in certain cases to be deemed to have left, etc.,, on a voyage to a particular place. Powers of search. Power to detain ship. Protection of police, guards and watchmen. Penalty for obstructing search. Other power of search not affected. No order etc., to be given which might have the effect of causing failure to observe regulations. Regulations. Liability to pay for watchmen and guards. Ordinance No. 6 of 1875. Ordinance not to apply to launch when being used for pleasure. General power of exemption.

[Originally No.23 of 1914. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. No launch or ship to leave on certain voyages unless a bond has been entered into. No launch to carry passengers except within the Harbour unless a bond has been entered into. Clearance. Etc, may be refused where reasonable ground to anticipate that an offence is about to be committed. Nature of bond required. Form of bond. Schedule. Procedure in case of invalid surety. summons to obligors in case of breach. Forfeiture of sum secured by bond. Hearing in the absence of defendant not served. General powers of magistrate. Powers of magistrate with reference to recovery of penal sum declared to be forfeited. Launch or ship in certain cases to be deemed to have left, etc.,, on a voyage to a particular place. Powers of search. Power to detain ship. Protection of police, guards and watchmen. Penalty for obstructing search. Other power of search not affected. No order etc., to be given which might have the effect of causing failure to observe regulations. Regulations. Liability to pay for watchmen and guards. Ordinance No. 6 of 1875. Ordinance not to apply to launch when being used for pleasure. General power of exemption.

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