205
measured; the charge for measurement to be
made in accordance with the General Order, No.
65, 1855, at the rate of 7s. 6d. for each area, but
to be paid only for the number of areas actually
measured.
That whenever a ship has been measured under
the 27th section, or when any alteration has taken
place at a port other than that at which the ship
has been registered, the Registrar do transmit the
Certificate of Survey and Formula to the Regis-
trar at the Port of Registry, apprizing that
officer that he has altered the Certificate of Re-
gistry in accordance therewith; that the Regis-
trar at the Port of Registry, do thereupon alter
the Register Book, and advise the Chief Regis-
trar of such alteration having been made..
That with reference to the 12th section of the
Merchant Shipping Amendment Act, 18th and
19th Victoria, chapter 91, the Registrar on ad-
vising the particulars for the transfer of registry
to another Port, do state whether the Certificate
of Registry has been delivered up to him.
That the maximum charge of 7s. 6d. for each
transverse section be made for ships measured
under the provisions of the 14th section of the
Merchant Shipping Amendment Act.
That the Certificates of all cancelled Registries
be forwarded when cancelled to the Chief Regis-
trar of Shipping, with a memorandum noted
thereon of the grounds upon which the Registry
has been cancelled or closed,
That the instruction to the Measuring Officers
in the General Order No. 64, 1855, which re-
quires "the official number" to be shown on the
form of the particulars of measurement of a ves-
sel, be rescinded, and that in future the Registrar
do not give an official number to a vessel prior to
the registry thereof.
The Board approve of the additional instruc-
tions proposed, and the several Registrars are to
govern themselves accordingly.

CUSTOM HOUSE, LONDON.
20th December, 1855.

THE aforegoing Copy of the Board's Minute of
the 17th instant, is transmitted to the Collector
and Comptroller at
for their information and guidance.
By Order of the Commissioners,
F. G. GARDNER.

No.
71
1855.

CUSTOM HOUSE, LONDON.
15th May, 1855.

GENTLEMEN,

In consequence of the numerous Letters
which have been received from the Out Ports,
requesting information relating to the Registry
of Vessels under the Merchant Shipping Act,
1854,
I am directed by the Board to acquaint you,
for the information of yourselves and all parties
concerned,

That the Old Law having been repealed, no
operation under its provisions is intended for the
future;
That it is not now requisite, as formerly, that
Ships should be registered anew on change of
property unless the Owners desire it;
That ships registered prior to the 1st May,
1855, may retain their old Registries:
That ships may, with the sanction of the
Board, and on payment of the expenses, be re-
measured under the New Law if the Owners
desire it, and retain their old Registries, the same
being marked with any alteration of Tonnage
such re-measurement may result in, but that
Ships required to be registered a-new must of
necessity be re-measured under the New Law;
and Ships registered prior to the 1st May, 1855,
transferred from one Port to another, must in
like manner be re-measured.
That in cases where Ships are registered under
the Old Law, and the Certificate of Registry may
have been lost or obliterated, the Certificate
given in lieu should be on the Old Form as being
that alone applicable to the particulars found in
the Registry;
And whenever ships have been once measured
under the New Law, that it is not requisite they
should be again measured on Registry a-new, ex-
cept under the circumstances enumerated in the
26th Section of the Merchant Shipping Act.

I am, &c., &c.,
C. CLARIDGE.
Pro Assistant Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland
18th August, 1856.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been
pleased to direct that the following
letters from Captain Denham, R.N. to the
Hydrographer of the Admiralty, respecting
Islands and Reefs in the South Western Pacific
Ocean, should be published for general infor-
mation.

By his Excellency's command,
C. W. RICHMOND,
Colonial Secretary.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

Hydrographic Notice.
[No. 2.]

ISLANDS AND REEFS IN THE SOUTH-

WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN.

H.M.S. Herald, Norfolk Island,
12th June, 1855.

My letter of the 18th of May will have apprized
you of my intended route to resume the Fiji sur-
vey, viz., by Lord Howe island, there to test a
position assigned to an island, N. 79° E. 84 miles
from Lord Howe island, in a published chart by
Laurie; then to Norfolk island, and then to the
only position (of the several assigned to the Rosa-
retta reef,) which I had not been able to examine
during my last season's work, and which latter
position would place it about 300 miles S, 72° E.
of Norfolk island, and whereon it is asserted that
a prize vessel in charge of a naval officer was
wrecked last war.

2. Accordingly I landed at our former observa-
   tory site on Lord Howe island on the 27th May,
   and verified its longitude, the meridian distance
   coming out so close as to confirm the character of
   our thirteen chronometers in a way which
   rendered it quite unnecessary to wait the usual
   interval for fresh rates. The mean of our
   meridian distances between Garden island, Sydney,
   and Lord Howe island in 1853 and 1854 amounted
   to 0h 31m 22s E.; the result of our late four
   days run gave 0h 31m 21s E. I therefore do not
   disturb the longitude 159° 6' 0" E. of Green-
   wich, which I transmitted for Middle Beach,
   Lord Howe island, on the 19th of Mach, 1854.

3. With so excellent a departure I shaped a
   course the same evening that should place me on
   the parallel of the reported island by day break;
   and, after traversing in beautifully clear weather
   over a space that would have detected anything
   on the horizon within a degree of longitude and
   half a degree of latitude of the spot assigned, viz.
   31° 17' S. 160° 42' E., and dropping the lead
   around in 200 fathoms, and on the given spot in
   235 fathoms, no bottom, I felt authorized to enter
   in my journal that no such island exists, and