'248
CHINESE PASSENGERS' ACT,
and the master must provide himself with two or three spare rice boilers, as they are very brittle, and liable to accident.
VI. In the very important particular of ventilation, the Government Notification No. 15, of the 22nd April, 1856, is republished here, being not generally known.
No. 15.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
It is hereby notified for the information of masters of ships carrying Chinese passengers, and unprovided with the improved appliances usually found in vessels of modern construction, and generally for the information of all interested, that in addition to a windsail for every hatchway, it is required that a constant supply of fresh air be ensured to the between decks in bad weather, by fitting, at each end of the space set apart for passengers, two funnels of wood or metal, four in all, with moveable heads, in manner following, that is to say-the body of the air funnel to reach from underneath the lowermost deck overhead to a height of 3 or 4 feet above the upperinost deck, and to pass through holes cut for the purpose in either side of the deck, and made water-tight by a canvas coat or other suitable means.
Tae attention of the emigration officer has been called to the above regulation.
By Order,
W. T. MERCER,
Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 22nd April, 1856. Note. This regulation will be strictly enforced in every vessel crossing the tropics. And no vessel in which any part of the passenger deck is in total darkness, requiring artificial light, consuming oxygen, will be passed by the emigration officer as fit to carry passengers
Other questions affecting Chinese passenger ships, such as length of voyages, regulating supply of provisions; cabin passengers; description and stowage of cargo stowage of water, &c., &c., and many items of detail differing in vessels of different tonnage and build, and in those carrying a greater or less number of passengers, cail be settled definitely or application to the emigration officer at this office.
NOTIFICATION.
A. L. INGLIS,
Emigration Officer.
Considerable difficulty and many disputes having arisen during the last emigra- tion season consequent on the authorities at San Francisco having determined to enforce the operation of the United States' law on emigrant vessels arriving at that port: The undersigned deems it right to advise charterers and masters of ships con- veying Chinese emigrants to ports in the United States, that, although they have an undoubted right to clear hence under British law, it will be better for them, until the laws of the two countries on Chinese emigration be assimilated, that they should not enter into engagements to convey more passengers in their ships than will meet the requirements of the laws of the country to which they are proceeding.
The following extract from the United States' Passenger Act of 1855, is published
for the information of those concerned :-
SEC. 1.-Tonnage Check, Computation of Children.
No greater number of passengers is to be carried than 1 to 2 tons.
is to be carried than 1 to 2 tons. In the com- putation of passengers, infants under 1 year old are to be excluded, and two children between 1 and 8 years are to count as one passenger.
Space Check.
Where the height between decks is not less than 7 feet, 14 superficial feet are to be allowed to each passenger; where less than 7 feet, but not less than 6 feet, 16 superficial feet are to be allowed to each passenger,
feet on the lower deck, not being an orlop deck.
.......and 18 superficial
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