Printed for the use of the Cabinet.
Miscellaneous, No. 73.
MEMORANDUM.
Bill to amend Passengers Acts, 1855 and 1863.
PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
8855
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
The Passengers Act, 1855 (section 52), empowers a Secretary of State or the Governor of a Colony, or a British Consul to defray the expenses of any passengers of a disabled or abandoned passenger ship, who have been picked up at sea and brought in to the United Kingdom, or the Colony, or a foreign port; and (section 53) to send such pas- sengers to their destination if the master of the ship fails to do so. All costs incurred under the sections are (by section 54) recoverable from the owner, charterer, or master of the ship.
The Passengers Act, 1863, (sections 15, 16) gives similar powers to governors and consuls in respect
of
passengers of passenger ships, who without any neglect or default of their own, find themselves in any colonial or foreign port for which the ship was not originally bound.
But the Acts apply only to ships carrying 30 passengers, or passengers in certain specified pro- portion to the tonnage (Act of 1855, section 4), and to ships proceeding to certain places, or on voyages of certain specified duration (sections 4, 95). Inconvenience has been experienced from the absence of similar powers in the case of passengers in ships and on voyages which do not come within the purview of the foregoing provisions. It is now proposed to extend them to all ships carrying passengers, irrespective of the number of passengers or the length of the voyage.
The Board of Trade entirely approve of the Bill.
11th September.
J. B.
i 55648. 25.-5/89. G. 54. E. & S.
i
i