FEMALE DOMESTIC SERVICE ORDINANCE

FEMALE DOMESTIC SERVICE ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 60.

FEMALE DOMESTIC SERVICE.

To prohibit the employment or possession of mui tsai or

the employment of female domestic servants below a

certain age and for purposes ancillary thereto.

[15th February, 1923.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Female Domestic Service
Ordinance.

2. Whereas certain persons have erroneously supposed that the
payment of money to the parent or guardian or employer of a female
child, such payment purporting to be in return for the transfer of certain
parental rights, may confer certain rights of property in the child and
certain rights of retaining possession, custody and control of the child
as against the child's parent or guardian and as against the child
herself, it is hereby declared and enacted that no such payment can
confer any such rights whatsoever upon the person making such
payment or upon any other person.

3. In this Ordinance-
'mui tsai' includes-

(a)every female domestic servant under the age of eighteen
years whose employer for the time being has made, directly
or indirectly, within or without the Colony, any payment to
any person for the purpose of securing the services of such
female as a domestic servant;

(b)every female domestic servant under the age of eighteen
years whose employer for the time being has, within or
without the Colony, acquired the custody, possession or
control of such female from, or upon the death of, any former
employer who made any such payment as aforesaid.

4. No person shall have in his employment any mui Isai.





5. No person shall bring or cause to be brought any mui tsai into the
Colony. Notwithstanding anything contained in section 26 of the
Magistrates Ordinance, any complaint or information in respect of an
offence against this section may 6e made or laid at any time.

6. No person shall have in his employment any female domestic
servant under the age of twelve years.

7.Any person who contravenes any of the provisions

of this Ordinance shall upon summary conviction be liable
to a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars and to imprison-
ment for six months. [16(3)

8.No prosecution under this Ordinance shall be com-

menced without the consent of the Secretary for Chinese
Affairs. [17

9.In every prosecution under this Ordinance it shall

until the contrary is proved be presumed that the girl in
question was a mui tsai in the employment of the accused
at the time of the alleged offence, and this onus shall not
be deemed to be discharged by mere proof that the girl
was described in any transaction by some term other than
mui tsai. [19

10. In every prosecution under this Ordinance, whether evidence
be called on the question of age or not, any girl who appears to the
magistrate to be of or under or over any particular age shall, unless the
contrary is proved, be deemed for the purposes of such prosecution to
be of or under or over such age as the case may be. [20

11. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect any right
of guardianship vested in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs
by virtue of the provisions of the Protection of Wornen
and Girls Ordinance, [21

1938.
Originally 1 of 1923. Fraser 1 of 1923. 5 of 1938. 24 of 1950. 24 of 1950, Schedule. Short title. Declaratory clause. Interpretation. Prohibition of employment of mui tsai. 24 of 1950, Schedule. Mui tsai not to be brought into Colony. 24 of 1950, Schedule. (Cap. 227.) Prohibition of maidservants under twelve. 24 of 1950, Schedule. General penalty. Consent. Onus. Age. Saving. 5 of 1938, s. 45.

Originally 1 of 1923. Fraser 1 of 1923. 5 of 1938. 24 of 1950. 24 of 1950, Schedule. Short title. Declaratory clause. Interpretation. Prohibition of employment of mui tsai. 24 of 1950, Schedule. Mui tsai not to be brought into Colony. 24 of 1950, Schedule. (Cap. 227.) Prohibition of maidservants under twelve. 24 of 1950, Schedule. General penalty. Consent. Onus. Age. Saving. 5 of 1938, s. 45.

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