1318
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 87

discharges, must be lodged with the Superintendent
of the Mercantile Marine Office, not later than the
day before the day of examination, and the Candi-
date must conform to any regulations in this respect
which may be laid down by the Marine Department,
as, if this be not done, delay may be occasioned.

5. Testimonials of character, and of sobriety, ex-
   perience, ability, and good conduct on board ship,
   for at least the twelve months of service imme-
   diately preceding the date of application to be ex-
   amined, will be required of all Applicants, and
   without producing them no person will be examined.

6. The testimonials of servitude of Foreigners and
   of British Seamen serving in foreign vessels, which
   cannot be verified, must be confirmed either by the
   Consul of the country to which the ship in which
   the Candidate served belonged or by some other
   recognised official authority of that country, or by
   the testimony of some credible person on the
   spot having personal knowledge of the facts re-
   quired to be established. The production, however,
   of such proofs will not of necessity be deemed suffi-
   cient. Each case will be decided on its own merits,
   and, if the sufficiency of the proofs given appears to
   be at all doubtful, it must be referred to the Marine
   Department.

7. Should any doubt exist as to the age of a
   Candidate, he will be required to produce a certifi-
   cate of birth.

8. Foreigners must prove to the satisfaction of the
   Examiners that they can speak and write the
   English language sufficiently well to perform the
   duties required of them on board a British vessel.

9. Statement of services in ships over eighty tons,
   of which the agreements with the crews have been
   entered into in New Zealand, can be verified by the
   Superintendents of Mercantile Marine Offices, and
   may be obtained on application at such offices
   upon payment of a small fee, the amount of which
   will be regulated by the amount of service re-
   quired to be verified. Delay, inconvenience, and
   disappointment will be avoided by candidates get-
   ting this verification beforehand.

10. The time for which length of service as Sea-
    man or Officer in the Mercantile Marine is to be
    reckoned in all cases referred to in the following
    paragraphs is to commence at the date when the
    Articles of Agreement were signed by the Applicant,
    and to end at the date when he was discharged as
    shown on the Articles of Agreement. The Certifi-
    cates of Discharge will generally be sufficient
    evidence of this, but great care must be exercised
    by the Superintendent and Examiners to detect
    any tampering in any way with the information
    contained in them, and to report to the Marine
    Department at once any suspicious cases.

11. Services which cannot be verified by proper
    Entries in the Articles of the ships in which the
    Candidates have served cannot be counted. For
    instance, a man will state his service to have been
    as Second or Only Mate, and to support his asser-
    tion will produce a Certificate of Discharge or of
    employment by the Master, to the effect that he
    served as Mate, when on reference to the Articles
    it appears that he has actually been rated as Boat-
    swain; the service in such a case will not be
    regarded as having been in the capacity of Mate.

12. Whenever a man has, from any cause, been
    regularly promoted on a vacancy in the course of
    the voyage from the rank in which he first shipped,
    and such promotion, with the ground on which it
    has been made, is properly entered in the Articles
    and in the Official Log Book, he will of course re-
    ceive credit for his service in the higher grade for
    the period subsequent to his promotion.

13. Service in the coasting trade may be allowed
    to count as service, in order to qualify a candidate
    for examination for a Certificate of Competency for
    Foreign-going Ships; it being understood, however,
    that service in the coasting trade must amount to
    half as much again as service in the foreign trade,
    and that service in a lower grade than that of First
    or Only Mate in the coasting trade will not be
    recognised as officer’s service.

14. Three years’ service as Mate in the coasting
    trade, together with at least nine months’ service
    as Master, may be allowed to count as service for
    a Master’s Certificate for Foreign-going Ships, pro-
    vided the Candidate’s entire service at sea cal-
    culated as above is sufficient, and that his services
    as Mate and Master in the coasting trade can be
    proved by the Articles, and provided he has already
    passed an examination for the Foreign Trade, unless,
    under special circumstances, the Marine Depart-
    ment see fit to dispense with this latter provision.

15. Services in Pleasure Yachts of not less than
    twenty tons register, performed within Home-trade
    limits, may be accepted towards qualifying a Can-
    didate for examination, provided the Candidate has
    proof of from six to twelve months’ service in an
    ordinary trading vessel, the amount of the latter
    service to be determined by the nature and length
    of the Candidate’s experience in Pleasure Yachts.
    Only service at sea will be allowed to count, and
    time spent in port will not be accepted. The Can-
    didate must have his sea services verified as far as
    possible. He must then fill in an application form
    (Exn. 2) and forward it, filled up in the usual way,
    to the Marine Department, accompanied by a full
    and detailed description of all the services claimed
    (if not officially verified), such as the nature and
    length of voyages, &c., capacity served in, tonnage
    of vessels, whether steam or sailing, time actually
    afloat, time in harbour, &c.; and unless these par-
    ticulars are forwarded to the Marine Department
    supported by satisfactory certificates and testi-
    monials no application will be entertained.

16. Service in Pleasure Yachts will not be ac-
    cepted at all unless verified by satisfactory proofs,
    and it must be distinctly understood that accepted
    service is confined to actual sea service, service in
    harbour or port being inadmissible. See also
    par. 26.

17. Time for which Indentures of Apprentice-
    ship are in force will be accepted as sea service,
    provided that the Apprentice has remained by the
    ship for at least four-fifths of the time covered by
    the Indentures, and that the Indentures of the ap-
    plicant are indorsed by the Owner or Master to
    whom he has been bound, to the effect that he has
    performed his service faithfully for the whole time
    agreed upon.

18. Service as Third or Fourth Mate may be
    accepted as equivalent to service as Second Mate
    to qualify a Candidate for examination for a Cer-
    tificate of Competency as First Mate, provided he
    is able to produce a satisfactory testimonial from
    the Master or Owner of the vessel in which the
    service was performed, showing that he has had
    charge of a watch while serving as such Third or
    Fourth Mate, and that during the whole of the time
    claimed he was in possession of a Second Mate’s
    Certificate of Competency, valid in New Zealand.

19. Service as Third or Fourth Mate may also be
    accepted on the same conditions to qualify a Can-
    didate for examination for a Master’s Certificate of
    Competency, provided he can produce satisfactory
    evidence of his having served at sea twelve months
    as Second Mate of a Foreign-going Ship while in
    possession of a First Mate’s Certificate of Com-