THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 7TH AUGUST, 1869.
Mr. Gray to the Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office. (Colonial Certificates).
Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, 16th April, 1869.
353
SIR, I am directed by the Board of Trade to state, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that they have found it necessary to cancel certain Instructions issued by them in 1863, to the Superintendents of the Mercantile Marine Offices in the United Kingdom, under which a Colonial Vessel was allowed to clear without production of the Master's and Mate's Certificates for any intermediate Port or Ports, not situate in the Colony in which the Vessel was registered, provided her ultimate destination, as shown by the Ship's Papers, was a Port situate in that Colony.
Notification of this fact has been made public in this country, but as Colonial Shipmasters and Owners occasionally plead ignorance of the law on the subject, I am to suggest, for the consideration of Earl Granville, whether it might not be desirable to furnish the Officers administering the Governments of Her Majesty's several Possessions abroad with Copies of the accompanying Printed Notice, and to request them to take steps for giving publicity to its contents.--I have, &c.,
The Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office.
Circular No. 350.
BOARD OF TRADE, March 1869.
NOTICE
(Signed)
THOMAS GRAY.
TO
MASTERS, MATES, BROKERS, AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN COLONIAL SHIPS.
With reference to Sections 109, 136, 280, and 284 of “The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854.” In consequence of the ignorance occasionally manifested by colonial ship-masters of the provisions of Colonial ships engaged the Merchant Shipping Act which affect colonial ships engaged in the trade. of the United Kingdom, in the Trade of the attention is hereby directed to the terms of the last clause of Section 109 of "The Merchant Shipping Act,
United Kingdom. 1854," viz., "The whole of the third part of this Act shall apply to (* **)all ships registered in any "British Possession, and employed in trading or going between any place in the United Kingdom and any 'place or places not situate in the Possession in which such ships are registered, and to the owners,
masters, and crews of such ships respectively, wherever the same may be."
*C
66
By Section 136 (one of the sections contained in the third part of the Act) it is provided as follows:- Officers' Certificates. "No foreign-going ship or home-trade passenger ship shall go to sea from any port in the United Kingdom "unless the Master thereof, and in the case of a foreign-going ship the first and second mates or only mate (as the case may be), and in the case of a home-trade passenger ship the first or only mate (as the case may be), have obtained and possess valid certificates either of competency or service appropriate to their "several stations in such ship, or of a higher grade; and no such ship, if of one hundred. tons burden or "upwards, shall go to sea as aforesaid unless at least one officer besides the master has obtained and "possesses a valid certificate appropriate to the grade of only mate therein or to a higher grade; and every person who, having been engaged to serve as master or as first or second or only mate of any foreign-going 'ship, or as master or first or only mate of a home-trade passenger ship, goes to sea as aforesaid as such master or mate without being at the time entitled to and possessed of such a certificate as herein-before "required, or who employs any person as master or first, second, or only mate of any foreign-going ship, or as master or first or only mate of a home-trade passenger ship, without ascertaining that he is at the "time entitled to and possessed of such certificate, shall for each such offence incur a penalty not exceeding "fifty pounds."
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By Section 280 (another of the sections contained in the third part of the Act), it is provided that "The Board of Trade shall sanction forms of official log-books, which may be different for different classes "of ships so that each such form contains blanks for the entries hereinafter required; and an official log "of every ship (except ships employed exclusively in trading between ports on the coasts of the United Kingdom) shall be kept in the appropriate sanctioned form; and such official log may, at the discretion "of the master or owner, either be kept distinct from the ordinary ship's log or united therewith so that in "all cases all the blanks in the official log be duly filled up." And by Section 284 it is provided that if in any case an official log-book is not kept in the manner required by the Act, or if any entry directed by the Act to be made in any such log-book is not made at the time and in the manner thereby directed, the master shall, for each such offence, incur the specific penalty therein mentioned in respect thereof, or where there is no such specific penalty, a penalty not exceeding five pounds.
THOMAS GRAY, Assistant Secretary.
N.B.-This Notice should be freely circulated by the Superintendent amongst Brokers and others concerned with Colonial Shipping." A demand for the number of copies required should be made upon the usual form.
No. 93.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Official Logs.
The following Regulation, made by His Excellency The GOVERNOR under Ordinance No. 8 of 1858, Section XVII, is published for general information. The fine provided by that Ordinance for infrac- tion of such Rule is a sum not exceeding Twenty Dollars.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 7th August, 1869.
J. GARDINER AUSTIN,
Colonial Secretary.