572
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 17т¤ JUNE, 1893.
a Colonial Certificate must be accepted as occupying in every respect the place of one of the latter, and as entitling its bonâ fide holder to act in the capacity stated in it, or any inferior (but not a superior) capacity in any British ship, all over the world without the possession of a Board of Trade Certificate. Colonial Certificates will have to be used, produced, and delivered at the times and on the occasions at and on which Certificates of Competency granted by the Board of Trade would have to be used, produced, and delivered.
When it appears from a Certificate officially produced to the Officer that its owner possesses other Certificates, their production also should be required, and if they are not produced their owner's explanation in writing should be demanded and forwarded to the Registrar-General of Seamen with the least possible delay.
Officers in British Possessions abroad are empowered by Regulation 10 attached to the Order in Council to demand, and if necessary detain, any such Colonial Certificate which they have reason to believe has been improperly issued, or has been forged, altered, cancelled, suspended, or to which the person using it is not justly entitled.
Whenever this power is exercised a report of the facts and circumstances must be sent by the Officer, with the least possible delay, to either the Board of Trade or the Government of the Possession in which the Certificate was originally granted or may purport to have been granted, accordingly as communication may be easier and quicker.
As the withdrawal of a Certificate would in some cases entail inconvenience, not only upon its possessor but also upon the owners of the ship and cargo, it is scarcely necessary to caution Officers that the exercise of this power should only be resorted to when the evidence is perfectly clear; and if the ship is bound to the United Kingdom, and the report above mentioned has been sent to the Government of the Possession by which the Certificate was originally granted, the Board of Trade should nevertheless be informed of the facts.
Every case of death of a Colonial Certificate-holder which may come to the Officer's knowledge should be reported without delay to the Government of the Possession by which the Certificate was granted.
The attention of Officers and Functionaries in British Possessions abroad engaged in the conduct of Official Inquiries in wreck and discipline cases is directed to the fact that the Certificates to which the Order in Council applies will be liable to cancellation and suspension in precisely the same way as Certificates granted by the Board of Trade under the Merchant Shipping Acts, and by the same Boards, Courts, and Tribunals. The provisions of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," and "The Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act, 1862," as to Courts of Inquiry will therefore be applicable to the Colonial Certificates in question, with the exception of the provisions specified in the Order in
Council.
Attention is further directed to the provision inserted in Regulation 7 attached to the Order in Council, under which the Governor or person administering the Government of the British Possession in which a Certificate has been cancelled or suspended is, in certain circumstances, empowered to return Certificates cancelled or suspended by an official Court of Inquiry, or to shorten the time for which they are suspended, or to issue other Certificates in their place.
It will be noticed that Regulation 9 attached to the Order in Council provides that the cancellation or suspension of a Certificate shall involve cancellation or suspension of all the other Certificates (if any) possessed by its owner. With the view of carrying this Regulation strictly into effect, it will be desirable that the Court should endeavour to ascertain and should specify in their decision the particulars of all the Certificates possessed by any person whose conduct is the subject of an investi- gation by them.
In cases of cancellation or suspension of such Colonial Certificates, copies of the report of the Court and of the evidence, together with the respective Certificates, should be sent to the Governments of the British Possessions by whom the several Certificates possessed by the offender were originally granted. A full report upon the case and the Evidence should, at the same time, be sent to the Board of Trade, as required by the Act, and the sentence giving the number of each Certificate dealt with and the Possession in which it was granted, should be mentioned in it.
When a Certificate has been cancelled or suspended in a British Possession, and the Governor of that Possession does not see fit to interfere with the decision of the Court, the officer whose certificate has been so dealt with, if he wishes to appeal, should be referred to the Government of the British Possession which granted the Certificate, and not to the Board of Trade.
These instructions must be understood as having reference only to the Certificate referred to in the said Order in Council.
COURTENAY BOYLE,
Acting Secretary.
GEORGE J. SWANSTON,
Assistant Secretary.
10358.
M.
1891.
M. 2064.
1893,