Tenants So
adria the granting of Registers to junk boats as had by becoming British subjects, & who had divested themselves of the obligation taken upon them could be guaranteed by other lesson Tenants. But there had been serious complaints from the Naval Commander-in-chief, & from the Consular & Chinese Authorities, of the abuse by small craft carrying the British flag of the Treaty Regulations, & as the prosperity of this Colony (so much increased of late),
totally depends, so far as regards the native population, upon the coasting trade, which is carried on in vessels ranging between 20 & 100 tons, it was deemed advisable by the Colonial Government that an Ordinance should be passed, which, in no way interfering
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with the granting of Imperial Registers to large going ships should yet facilitate the obtaining of English papers of in certain description by Colonial craft, & should also give the Colonial Government means which it could not possess under an Imperial Register, of furnishing notifications of the Treaty with China. It was not thought necessary to fix the local limits within which the Colonial Register should run, because the character of the craft which require those Registers, if the objects of the local trade render it a matter of the utmost improbability that a Colonial Registered vessel could go anywhere else than along the Coast of China, Bar the Colonial Register is obtained on the strength of a declaration that the vessel is solely to be employed in trade with China, & a falsifying