[Re-printed from the New Zealand Gazette.]

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 7th Dec., 1863.

HIS Excellency the Governor directs the publication for general information, of the following Act passed by the Imperial Parliament, intituled “An Act to amend the Passengers Act, 1855.”

WILLIAM FOX.

ANNO VICESIMO SEXTO & VICESIMO SEPTIMO
VICTORIÆ REGINÆ.

CAP. LI.

An Act to amend the Passengers Act, 1855.

[13th July, 1863.]

WHEREAS it is expedient to amend “The Passengers Act, 1855,” in the particulars hereinafter mentioned: Be it therefore 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:--

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as “The Passengers Act Amendment Act, 1863.”

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

3. The definition in the third Section of “The Passengers Act, 1855,” of the term “Passenger Ship,” is hereby repealed, and for the purposes of the said Act and of this Act the term “Passenger Ship” shall signify every description of sea-going vessel, whether British or Foreign, carrying, upon any voyage to which the provisions of the said “Passengers Act, 1855,” shall extend, more than fifty passengers, or a greater number of passengers than in the proportion of one statute adult to every thirty-three tons of the registered tonnage of such ships, if propelled by sails, or than one statute adult to every twenty tons, if propelled by steam.

4. So much of the fourth Section of the said “Passengers Act, 1855,” as exempts from the operation of the Act any steam vessel carrying mails under contract with the Government of the State or Colony to which such vessel may belong, is hereby repealed, and every steam vessel, whether British, Foreign, or Colonial, which shall carry passengers other than cabin passengers in sufficient number to bring such vessel within the definition of a passenger ship, as set forth in the third Section of this Act, shall be subject to the provisions of the said Act and of this Act in like manner as any passenger ship not carrying a mail.

5. The first rule of the fourteenth Section of the said “Passengers Act, 1855,” which limits the number of persons to be carried in a passenger ship by her registered tonnage, together with so much of the concluding portion of the same Section as relates to such rule, is hereby repealed, except so far as relates to any penalty incurred or legal proceedings taken thereunder.

6. In the passenger lists required by the sixteenth and seventeenth Sections of “The Passengers Act, 1855,” to be delivered by the master of every ship before demanding a clearance, there shall be set forth in addition to the other particulars required by “The Passengers Act, 1855,” the names of all cabin passengers on board such ships, specifying whether they respectively are under or over twelve years of age, and at what place the passengers and cabin Passengers respectively are to be landed, and the Schedule B. to the said Act shall be altered accordingly.

7. The limit of the penalty imposed by the eighteenth Section of the said “Passengers Act, 1855,” on persons convicted of getting on board any passenger ship with intent to obtain a passage therein without the consent of the owner, charterer, or master thereof, and on persons aiding or abetting in such fraudulent attempt, shall be extended from five pounds to twenty pounds.

8. Notwithstanding the prohibition contained in the twenty-ninth Section of the said “Passengers Act, 1855,” horses and cattle may be carried as cargo in passenger ships, subject to the following conditions:--

(1.) That the animals be not carried on any deck below the deck on which passengers are berthed, nor in any compartment in which passengers are berthed, nor in any adjoining compartment, except in a ship built of iron, and of which the compartments are divided off by water-tight bulk-heads extending to the upper deck:

(2.) That clear space on the spar or weather deck be left for the use and exercise of the passengers, at the rate of at least ten superficial feet for each statute adult:

(3.) That no greater number of passengers be carried than in the proportion of fifteen to every one hundred tons of the ships registered tonnage:

(4.) That in passenger ships of less than five hundred tons registered tonnage not more than two head of large cattle be carried, nor in passenger ships of larger tonnage more than one additional head of such cattle for every additional two hundred tons of the ships registered tonnage, nor more in all in any passenger ship than ten head of such cattle: the term “large Cattle” shall include both sexes of horned cattle, deer, horses, and asses; four sheep of either sex, or four female goats, shall be equivalent to, and may, subject to the same conditions, be carried in lieu of one head of large cattle.

(5.) That proper arrangements be made, to the satisfaction of the Emigration Officer at the port of clearance, for the housing, maintenance, and cleanliness of