PLACES OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT REGULATION ORDINANCE, 1919

PLACES OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT REGULATION ORDINANCE, 1919

No. 22 of 1919.
An Ordinance to consolidate and amend the late relating to
places of public entertainment.

[31st October, 1919.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Places of Public
Entertainment Regulation Ordinance, 1919.

2. In this Ordinance or any regulation made thereunder,
(a) Entertainment includes any concert, stage play,
stage performance, cinematograph display, exhibition of
dancing, conjuring, or juggling, acrobatic performance, box-
ing contest, or circus, or any other entertainment of a similar
character.
(b) Public entertainment means any entertainment, as
above defined, to which the general public are admitted with
or without payment for admission.

3. It shall not be lawful for any person to keep or use any
permanent or temporary building or matshed for any public
entertainment without a licence to be granted as hereinafter
provided, under a penalty not exceeding two hundred dollars
for every day on which such building or matshed shall have
been so kept or used for the purpose aforesaid.

4.-(1) No person shall advertise, present, or carry on
any cinematograph display to which the public are invited,
or cause any such display to be advertised, presented, or
carried on, except under a permit in writing from the Captain
Superintendent of Police, who shall have full discretion
either to grant or to withhold or to cancel the same, and, in
the case of a cinematograph display at a Chinese theatre to
which the public are invited, such person must also obtain
a permit in writing for such performance from the Secretary
for Chinese Affairs.
(2) No such permit by the Captain Superintendent of
Police shall be given until the film or films to be used at such
display and the poster or posters in connexion therewith
shall have been censored and passed in accordance with
such regulations as may be made for the purpose under this

The provisions of the Celluloid and Cinematograph Film Ordinance, 1923, do
not apply to promises licensed under this Ordinance. See No. 23 of 1923, s. 5.
As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





Ordinance, and any film or poster, when once censored and
passed as aforesaid, shall not be altered or added to in any
way whatsoever without a fresh censoring and passing.

5. Every person who advertises, presents, or carries on
any cinematograph display to which the public are admitted,
or causes the same to be advertised, presented or carried on
without the permit of the Captain Superintendent of Police
shall upon summary conviction be liable to a fine not
exceeding five hundred dollars.

6.-(1) It shall be lawftil for the Governor in Council to
make regulations for all or any of the following purposes:-

(a) the mode of application for licences for any building,
whether permanent or temporary, or for any matshed, to be
used for any public entertainment, and the issue of such
licences to such person, for such period of time and during
such hours as may be respectively determined in every such
licence;

(b) the cancellation of any such licence;

(c) prescribing the payment of fees in respect of all or
any of such licences;

(d) prescribing the materials of which any such licensed
building or matshed is to be constructed, and regulating the
mode of building, staircases, corridors, gangways, vestibules,
seating accommodation, entrances, exits, doors and fastenings,
and all other matters appertaining to the same;

(e) requiring the exercise of all such measures as may be
prescribed in any such regulation against overcrowding, and
for the control and prevention of fire in any such building
or matshed, and for the maintenance of the sanitary condition
of such building or matshed;

(f) the maintenance of peace and good order in any such
building or matshed;
(g) the entry and inspection of any such building or
matshed at any time by the Captain Superintendent of Police,
and the Building Authority, or any other officer authorised
by the Governor in that behalf;

As amended bv Law Rev. Ord,, 1924,





(h) to provide for the censoring of cinematograph films
and posters in such manner and on such principles as may
be prescribed in such regulations;

(i) to prescribe the fees to be paid in respect of such
censoring;

(j) to prescribe any conditions whatsoever for any licence,
permit, or permission to be given under this Ordinance or
under any regulations made thereunder;

(k) the imposition of penalties for breach of any regulations
made in pursuance of this section and the mode of recovery
of the same ; and

(l) generally for the purpose of carrying into effect the
provisions of this Ordinance.

(2) All regulations made under this Ordinance shall be
laid on the table of the Legislative Council at the first meeting
thereof held after the publication in the Gazette of the
making of such regulations, and if a resolution is passed at
the first meeting of the Legislative Council held after such
regulations have been laid on the ttible of the said Council
resolving that any such regulation shall be rescinded, or
amended in any manner whatsoever, the said regulation
shall, without prejudice to anything done themunder, be
deemed to be rescinded or amended, as the case may be, as
from the date of publication in the Gazette of the passing of
such resolution.

7. Nothing in this Ordinance or in any regulation made
thereunder shall affect the necessity for the issue by th6
Secretary for Chinese Affairs of permits for Chinese public
theatrical performances under the Regulation of Chinese
Ordinance, 1888, or shall affect any regulations made under
the said Ordinance, and the expression public theatrical
performances as used in the said Ordinance shall include
public entertainments as defined by this Ordinance.

[S. 8, rep. Law Revision Ordinance, 1924.]

nance, 1924.
[Originally No. 22 of 1919. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. Licences to places of public entertainment. Permits required for cinematograph displays. Censoring of films and posters. Penalty for presenting cinemas without permit. Power to make regulations for places of public entertainment. Chinese theatrical performances exempted, and further defined. Ordinance No. 3 of 1888.

[Originally No. 22 of 1919. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. Licences to places of public entertainment. Permits required for cinematograph displays. Censoring of films and posters. Penalty for presenting cinemas without permit. Power to make regulations for places of public entertainment. Chinese theatrical performances exempted, and further defined. Ordinance No. 3 of 1888.

https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/items/show/1330

1923

v5

172

No. 22 of 1919

3