HOTELS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Chief Secretary (Mr W. A. C. Goode): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move. "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This, Sir, is another short and simple Bill. Its main object is to cure a defect in the Hotels Ordinance, 1954. That defect is that under section 1 of the Ordinance the whole of the Ordinance has to be brought into force at one time on one day. The Ordinance and the regulations made under it will provide for the registration of hotels and hotelkeepers and will lay down certain standards to be complied with by hotels, and it is clearly right that the regulations requiring acts to be done should be brought into force a reasonable period before failure to carry out those acts becomes an offence.

The purpose of clause 2 of this Bill is to enable some sections to be brought into force earlier than others, thus making it possible to give time for hotelkeepers to comply with the Ordinance and the regulations made thereunder before they become liable to penalties.

The opportunity has also been taken to transfer the power of making appointments to the Hotels Licensing Board from the Governor to the Governor in Council. Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.