208
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

proper authority within the Colony to that which is
by these sections given to the Board of Trade.

I have, &c.,
KIMBERLEY.

The Officer Administering
the Government of New Zealand.

Board of Trade to the Colonial Office.
Board of Trade,
M. 10,893. Whitehall Gardens, 8th September, 1873.
MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1873.-REGISTRY.
SIR, I am directed by the Board of Trade to
transmit a copy of "The Merchant Shipping Act,
1873," and to request that you will call the attention
of the Earl of Kimberley to the 3rd section, by which
every British ship is required to be marked to the
satisfaction of the Board of Trade with certain par-
ticulars, including a scale of feet denoting her draft
of water.

An offence against this section is punishable by a
penalty of £100.

I am also to call attention to sections 16 and 17,
relating to the duties of Masters in cases of collision,
and to state that the Board of Trade, being strongly
impressed with the importance of carrying into effect
these provisions as far as possible at home and
abroad, direct me to request that you will move his
Lordship to bring them to the notice of the Governors
or Administrators of the various British Possessions,
with instructions to take such steps as may be
practicable for their general publication, and for the
detection and punishment of offences against them.

With regard to the 12th and 13th sections, re-
lating to the survey of unseaworthy ships, I am to
request you to suggest to his Lordship that it is very
advisable that Acts or Ordinances should be passed
in the various Colonies giving similar power to the
Governors, Administrators, or other authorities, to
that which is by these sections given to the Board of
Trade.

A draft Circular to Registrars and other officers in
the British Possessions abroad is enclosed for the
approval of Earl Kimberley, and the Board of Trade
would be glad to know the number which will be
required for distribution.

I have, &c.,
THOMAS GRAY.

The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.

INSTRUCTIONS TO REGISTRARS AND
OTHER OFFICERS IN BRITISH INDIA
AND THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS
ABROAD.

MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1873.

A copy of this Act is annexed.

Registry.
The officer should report at once to the Board of
Trade any case in which there is reason to suppose
that a British ship which has sailed from a port in
the United Kingdom since the passing of this Act is
insufficiently or inaccurately marked, with informa-
tion as to the destination of the vessel, and her next
probable arrival at a port in the United Kingdom.

Foreign ships which become British ships, and
have not at any previous time been registered as
British ships, should not be registered by any other
name than that which they bore as foreign ships
immediately before becoming British ships, without
the written permission of the Board of Trade.

No ship which has ceased to be registered as a
British ship by reason of having been wrecked or
abandoned, or for any other reason than those men-
tioned in the 6th section, should be re-registered
until she has been surveyed and certified as seaworthy
by a Surveyor appointed in accordance with the law
of the possession, or, in the absence of any such law,
by the Governor or Administrator of the possession;
and in all cases of re-registry under such circum-
stances the officer should write at the top of the
transcript of the register to be forwarded to the
Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen the words
"Certificate of Seaworthiness granted."

Masters and Seamen.

The attention of the officer is called to the 9th
section, which gives a Court power to award com-
pensation to seamen who are detained on a charge of
desertion, or a kindred offence, where the ship is
proved by a survey under section 7 of the Act of
1871 to be unfit to proceed to sea, or to have insuffi-
cient accommodation.

Unseaworthy Ships.

By "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1871," any
person who knowingly sends a ship to sea in an
unseaworthy state is guilty of a misdemeanour.

By the 13th section of the present Act the Board
of Trade may order a survey of any British ship
which they have reason to believe to be unseaworthy.

In order that the Board of Trade may carry this
clause into effect, the officer should report to the
Board of Trade at once any case in which he has
reason to believe that a British ship is unseaworthy,
with particulars of the voyage on which she is
engaged, and her probable return to the United
Kingdom.

Collisions.

The officer should report at once to the Board of
Trade any case in which he has reason to believe that
the master of a ship which has been in collision with
another (one of the ships being British) has neglected
to stay by her until he has ascertained that she has
no need of assistance, or has failed to render proper
assistance, or to give to the master of the other
vessel the names of his own vessel, and of her port
of registry, or of the port or place to which she
belongs, and also the names of the ports or places
from which and to which she is bound.

The report should be accompanied by all the in-
formation which the officer is able to obtain, and
should be forwarded as soon as possible, whether or
not the case is to be investigated by a Court of
Inquiry or other tribunal.

Signals.

The officer should take every opportunity of giving
information of the signals of distress and for pilots,
now sanctioned by the British Parliament, to Masters
who may be ignorant of them.

Placards describing them accompany this circular,
and should be exhibited in the shipping office.

MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1873.

CHAPTER 85.

AN ACT to amend the Merchant Shipping Acts.
[5th August, 1873.

BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:-

Preliminary.

1. This Act may be cited as "The Merchant
   Shipping Act, 1873."

2. This Act shall be construed as one with "The
   Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," and the Acts amend-