BOARDING-HOUSE ORDINANCE, 1917

BOARDING-HOUSE ORDINANCE, 1917

No. 23 of 1917.
An Ordinance to provide for the licensing and control of
places where persons are lodged for hire.

[12th October, 1917.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Boarding-house
Ordinance, 1917.

2.-(1) In this Ordinance, boarding-house shall in-
elude evety place where any person is harboured or lodged
for any kind whatsoever of hire or reward and where any
domestic service whatsoever is rendered by the Owner,
lessee, principal tenant, occupier, or master, to the person
so harboured or lodged: Provided that the term shall not
include any boarding-house for non-Chinese seamen within
the meaning of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899.

(2) In particular, andwithout prejudice to sub-section (1),
and notwithstanding anything therein contained, boarding

house in this Ordinance shall include the following:-

(a) hotels;

(b) boarding-houses

(c) common lodging-houses as defined in the Public
health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903;

(d) places where employers lodge their employes, of either
sex and of whatever occupation; and

(e) the premises of societies within the meaning of the
Societies Ordinance, 1920, where persons pass the night.

3.-(1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to
make rules for the following purposes:-

(a) the classification and definition of different kinds. of
boarding-houses;
(b) the registration and licensing of boarding-houses;
(c) the suspension and cancellation of such licences;
(d) the fixing of fees to be paid in respect of such
licences
(e) the management and control of boarding-houses

See No. 12 of 1923, s. 8.
As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





(f) the authorisation of persons to make searches for the
Purposes of this Ordinance; and
(g) generally for the purpose of carrying into effect the
provisions of this Ordinance.
(2) Any such rules may refer only to some pafticular
class of boarding-house.

4.-(1) The Secretary for Chinese Affairs, or the Captain
Superintendent of Police, or the Harbour Master, or the
Read of the Sanitary Department, or any person authorised
thereto in writing by any, of the said officers, or authorised
thereto by any rule made under this Ordinance, way at any
hour search any place which either is a boarding-hotise
licensed under rules made under this Ordinance or is
suspected of being such a boarding-house. as should be
licensed under rules made under this Ordinance.

(2) Such officer or person may-

(a) break open any outer or inner door of any such place;

(b) forcibly enter any such place and every part thereof ;

(c) remove by force any personal or material obstruction
to any such search;

(d) detain every person found in any such place until such
place has been searched;

(e) seize, remove and detain any thing with respect to
which any offence against any rule made under this Ordi-
nance may appear to have been committed or which may
appear to be or to contain evidence of any such offence;

(f) search the person and property of any person found
in any such place : Provided that no female person shall be
searched except by a female, and provided that no person
shall be searched in a public place if he objects to be so
searched.

(3) No person shall obstruct any such search.

5. Upon the failure of any condition of any bond prescrib-
ed by any rule made under this Ordinance, the sum secured
by the bond shall be deemed to be a debt due to the Crown
and may be recovered in the same manner as Crown rents
are recovered upon a certificate purporting to be under the
hand of the Colonial Treasurer.





6. Every person who contravenes any of the provisions of
this Ordinance or of any rule made thereunder shall upon
summary conviction be liable to the following penalties:-

(a) for a first offence, to a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six
months ;

(b) for a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceed-
ing two thousand dollars or to imprisonment for any term
not exceeding twelve months.

7.-(1) Wherever any licensee would have been liable
under this Ordinance to any pecuniary penalty or forfeiture
for any thing done or omitted if such thing had been done
or omitted by, him personally, he shall be liable to the same
pecuniary penalty or forfeiture if such thing has in fact been
done or omitted by his partner, agent, or servant.

(2) Every person who appears to be employed in or about
any boarding-house licensed under this Ordinance shall, for
the purposes of this section, be deemed to be a servant of the
licensee.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as relieving
any such partner, agent, or servant from. any penalty or
forfeiture, to which he would otherwise be liable.

8. Nothing in this Ordinance shall limit the operation of
any of the following Ordinances or of any Ordinance amend-
ing or substituted for any of the said Ordinances

(a) The Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899;

(b) The Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903;

(c) The Liquors Consolidation Ordinance, 1911;

(d The Travellers Restriction Ordinance, 1915;

(e) The Asiatic Emigration Ordinance., 1915.

No. 24 of 1917, incorporated in No. 9 of 1911.
[Originally No. 23 of 1917. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. Ordinance No. 10 of 1899. Ordinance No. 1 of 1903. Ordinance No. 8 of 1920. Rules. Search. Forfeiture of bond. Penalties. Responsibility for acts of partners, agents, and servants. Saving of Ordinances Nos. 10 of 1899, 1 of 1903, 9 of 1911, 19 of 1915, and 30 of 1915.

[Originally No. 23 of 1917. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. Ordinance No. 10 of 1899. Ordinance No. 1 of 1903. Ordinance No. 8 of 1920. Rules. Search. Forfeiture of bond. Penalties. Responsibility for acts of partners, agents, and servants. Saving of Ordinances Nos. 10 of 1899, 1 of 1903, 9 of 1911, 19 of 1915, and 30 of 1915.

https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/items/show/1311

1923

v5

132

No. 23 of 1917

3