URBAN COUNCIL ORDINANCE

URBAN COUNCIL ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 101.

URBAN COUNCIL.

To make Provision, for an Urban. Council.

[1st January, 1936.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Urban Council Ordinance.

2. In this Ordinance

'Council' means the Urban Council;

'Chairman' means the officer for the time being lawfully
performing the duties of Chairman of the Council ;

'Secretary' means any person appointed by the Governor
to be Secretary and includes an assistant secretary ;

'Health Officer' includes any Medical Officer appointed as a Health
Officer by the Governor by notification in the Gazette.

'Veterinary Officer' includes the Senior Veterinary Office.' and any
Assistant Veterinary Officer.

3. (1) The Urban Council shall consist of the Chairman, appointed
by the Governor, the Deputy Director of Health Services who shall be
Vice-Chairman, the Director of Public Works, the Secretary for Chinese
Affairs, the Commissioner of Police, and not more than eight additional
members who shall hold office for one year frorn the notification of
their respective appointments or elections in the Gazette.

(2) Two of the said additional members shall be elected by an
electorate composed of the persons whose names shall appear in one
or other of the two parts of the register hereinafter referred to :
Provided that if nominations are not received for all the vacancies
announced, it shall be lawful for the Governor to fill by appointment
any vacancy or vacancies which are not filled by election.

(3) The first part of the register shall consist of the two jurors lists
for the current jury year brought into force under the provisions of the
jury Ordinance.





(4) The second part of the said register, which shall be kept by the
Registrar of the Supreme Court, shall consist of the names of all male
persons of any of the following classes who shall have duly applied to
be registered therein, and whose claims to be registered shall have
been duly allowed--

(a)unofficial members of the Executive or Legislative Council ;

(b)persons of sound mind who have previously been included
in the jurors lists but have. been omitted or removed
therefrom on account of age or infirmity, or on account of
exemption from jury service ,granted by the Governor in
Council or by the court ;

(c)barristers and solicitors in actual practice and the clerks of
solicitors in actual practice ;

(d)persons registered under section 4 Of the Medical
Registration Ordinance, or under the Dentists Registration
Ordinance, or under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance;

(e)editors and sub-editors of daily newspapers published in the
Colony;

(f) clergymen, priests, and ministers of any Christian or Jewish
congregation, acting as such in the Colony;

(g)professors and other academic officers of the University of
Hong Kong;

(h)masters of schools which are certified by the Director of
Education as not being vernacular schools;

(i)certificated officers of the British Mercantile Marine; and
officers, warrant officers, and non-commissioned officers of
the Hong Kong Defence Force, and also such other members
of such Forces as shall have been exempted from jury -
service by the Governor in Council :

Provided that no person who is in the service of the Crown, and
whose whole time is at the disposal of the Crown, shall be entitled to
be included in the said register.





(5) If any question question arises as to the right of any person to
be included in the second part of the said register such question shall
be decided by the Registrar of the Supreme Court, subject to an appeal
within seven days to the Governor in Council whose decision thereon
shall be final : Provided that it shall be lawful for the Governor in
Council to vary such decision at any time.

(6) Subject to any rules made under section 4 Of this Ordinance,
the second part of the said register shall be closed to any fresh
applications for registration for fourteen days before the day appointed
for any ballot for the election of a member of the Urban Council, and
shall remain closed until after the balloting in that election shall have
been completed.

(7) Any person who at any ballot held under this section applies
for a ballot paper in the name of some other person, whether that name
be that of a person living or dead or of a fictitious person, or who,
having voted once at any such ballot, applies at the same ballot for a
ballot paper in his own name, and any person who, for the purpose of
procuring his registration in the second part of the register referred to in
subsections (3) to (6), knowingly makes any false or misleading
representation, whether verbal or in writing or by conduct, shall upon
summary conviction be liable to a fine of five hundred dollars and to
imprisonment for three months.

(8) If any question arises as to the validity of any proceeding in
any election or intended election of a member of the Urban Council the
decision of the Governor in Council thereon shall be final and
conclusive for all purposes whatsoever and the Governor in Council
may thereupon give any direction which he may think fit.

(9) The other six additional members (three of whom shall be
Chinese) shall be appointed by the Governor.

4. All matters relating to the keeping and revision of the register
and to the election of the members shall be governed by rules made by
the Governor in Council. The names of all members elected or
appointed shall be forthwith notified in the Gazette.






5. If any member of the Council be at any time pre-
vented for more than six months by absence or other cause
from acting, the Governor may appoint, or if the member
has been elected the electors may nominate, and, if more
than one candidate is nominated may elect, some other person
to replace such member, until he shall return or be able to
resume his functions.

6. The duties of the Council shall be to exercise control
within the area allotted to it over all matters in respect of
which powers are given to it by this Ordinance or any other
Ordinance.

7. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the
law in respect of matters over which the Council exercises
control there shall be a Sanitary Department.

8. The Governor may appoint a Secretary and assistant
secretaries to the Council, and also Health Officers, Veterinary
ary Officers and Health and other Inspectors, all of whom
shall be officers of the Sanitary Department, and may also
appoint such servants of the Department as may be
required.

9. The Deputy Director of Health Services shall be the
professional adviser to the Council in all medical matters
including matters of public health and sanitation, It shall
be his duty to assist and advise the Council on such matters
and to superintend the enforcement and observance of all
Ordinances relating to public health and of the by-laws and
regulations egulations made thereunder.

10. The Chairman of the Council shall give such
instructions as may be necessary for carrying out and giving
effect to the decisions and policy of the Council, and shall
be responsible also for the general administration of the
Sanitary Department.

11. The Council shall be held to be legally constituted
notwithstanding any vacancies occurring therein by the death,
absence, resignation, or incapacity of any member.





12. (1) The Council shall meet once in every alternate week and
oftener if need be, and may adjourn from time to time. The Chairman
may at any time, and shall, on a requisition signed by three members of
the Council, summon a meeting thereof.

(2) Any four members shall be a quorum, and at every meeting at
which the Chairman or Vice-Chairman is absent the members present
shall appoint a temporary chairman to preside. The chairman at any
meeting shall have an original vote and also, if the votes be equal, a
casting vote.

(3) The Council may make Standing Orders for
regulating the procedure at its meetings.

13. (1) The Council may appoint select committees, consisting of
not less than two of its members or one of its members and a Health
Officer or a Veterinary Officer, and may by appointment or removal
change the personnel of any such committee.

(2) The Council may by resolution delegate any of its powers and
functions to any Health Officer or to any such select committee as
aforesaid, with full powers to enforce any of the provisions of any
Ordinance or by-law conferring powers on the Council or providing for
the more effectual sanitation of the Colony, and may revoke such
delegation.

(3) Any failure to comply with the orders of a Health Officer or of
such select committee, duly signed by the Secretary of the Council,
shall be punishable in the same manner as if such order had been made
by the Council.
7 of 1935. 35 of 1939. 1 of 1940. 6 of 1946. Short title. Interpretation. Composition of the Urban Council. 35 of 1939, s. 2. 6 of 1946, s. 3. 6 of 1946, s. 6. (Cap. 3.) [s. 3 cont.] (Cap. 161.) (Cap. 156.) (Cap. 138.) 1 of 1940, s. 28. Rules as to election of members of the Council. Substitution of members. Duties of the council. Preserving existence of Sanitary Department. Appointment of officers. Position of Deputy Director of Health Services. 35 of 1939, s. 2. Duties of Chairman of Council. Constitution unaffected by vacancies on the Council. Council meetings. Appointment of select committees. Orders thereof or of Health Officer.

7 of 1935. 35 of 1939. 1 of 1940. 6 of 1946. Short title. Interpretation. Composition of the Urban Council. 35 of 1939, s. 2. 6 of 1946, s. 3. 6 of 1946, s. 6. (Cap. 3.) [s. 3 cont.] (Cap. 161.) (Cap. 156.) (Cap. 138.) 1 of 1940, s. 28. Rules as to election of members of the Council. Substitution of members. Duties of the council. Preserving existence of Sanitary Department. Appointment of officers. Position of Deputy Director of Health Services. 35 of 1939, s. 2. Duties of Chairman of Council. Constitution unaffected by vacancies on the Council. Council meetings. Appointment of select committees. Orders thereof or of Health Officer.

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