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understanding that if such request be not made within six months, reckoned on the first ten years, the said tariff will continue to be in force for ten years longer, reckoned in addition to the preceding ten years; and so on every ten years.
ARTICLE XXVII,
The Captain of a Portuguese ship may, when he deems it convenient, land only a part of his cargo at any of the open ports, paying the duties due on the portion landed.
ARTICLE XXVIII.
All Portuguese subjects carrying goods to a market in the interior of the country, on which the lawful import duties had already been paid at any of the open ports, or those who buy goods in the interior to bring to the ports on the Yang-tsi-kiang, or to send to foreign ports, will have to follow the new regulations adopted towards the other nations.
The Custom House officers who do not comply with the regulations, or who may exact more duties than are due, shall be punished according to the Chinese laws.
ARTICLE XXIX.
All Portuguese vessels that are dispatched from one of the open ports of China to another or to Macao, are entitled to a certificate of the Custom House which will exempt them from paying new tonnage dues, during the period of four months reckoned from the date of the dispatch.
ARTICLE XXX.
The master of a Portuguese ship has the option, within forty eight hours of his arrival at any of the open ports of China, but not later, to decide whether he will start without opening the hatches, and in such case he will not have to pay tonnage dues: He is bound, however, to give notice of his arrival for the legal registering as soon as he comes into port, under penalty of being fined in case of non compliance within the term of two days. And the ship will be subject to tonnage dues forty eight hours after her arrival in port, but neither then nor at her departure shall any other impost whatsoever be exacted.
ARTICLE XXXI.
All small vessels employed by Portuguese subjects in carrying passengers, baggage, letters, provisions or any other cargo which is free of duty, between the open ports of China, shall be free from tonnage dues: But all cargo vessels laden with merchandize subject to duty shall pay tonnage dues every four months at the rate of one mace per ton.
ARTICLE XXXII.
The Consuls and Superintendents of the Custom House will have to consult with each other, when absolutely necessary, as to the construction of Light Houses and the placing of Buoys and Light-ships.
ARTICLE XXXIII.
The duties are to be paid to the Bankers authorized by the Chinese Govern- ment to collect them, in sycee or in foreign coin, according to the official assay made at Canton on the 15th July 1843.
ARTICLE XXXIV.
In order to secure the regularity of weights and measures and to avoid confusion, the Superintendent of the Custom Houses will hand over to the Portuguese Consul at each of the open ports a standard weight similar to that given by the Treasury Department for collection of public dues at the Customs
of Cantor.
ARTICLE XXXV.
Portuguese merchant vessels approaching any of the open ports, will be at liberty to take a pilot to reach the harbor; and likewise take a pilot to leave it, provided it be found convenient and in case the said ship shall have paid, while in port, all the duties due by her.
ARTICLE XXXVI.
Whenever a Portuguese merchant ship shall arrive at any of the open ports of China, the Superintendent of the Customs will send off one or more Custom house officers, who may stay on board of their boat or on board of the ship, as best suits their convenience. These officers will get their food and all necessaries from the Custom house and will not be allowed to accept of any fee from the Captain of the ship or from the consignee, upon pain of a penalty proportionate to the amount received by them.
ARTICLE XXXVII.
Twenty-four hours after the arrival of a Portuguese merchant ship at any of the open ports, the papers of the ship, Bills of Lading and other documents, shall be handed over to the Consul, whose duty it will be also to report to the Superin- tendent of the Customs within twenty-four hours, the name, the registered tonnage and the cargo brought by the said vessel. If, through negligence or for any other motive, this stipulation be not complied with within forty-eight hours after the arrival of the ship, the Captain shall be subject to a fine of fifty taels for each day's delay over and above that period, but the maximum of the fine shall not, however, exceed two hundred taels.
The Captain of the ship is responsible for the correctness of the manifest, on which the cargo shall be minutely and truthfully described, subject to a fine of five hundred taels as a penalty in case the manifest should be found incorrect.
This fine, however, will not be incurred within twenty four hours after the delivery of the manifest to the Custom house officers, the Captain expresses the wish to rectify any error which may have been discovered in the said manifest.
ARTICLE XXXVIII.
The Superintendent of the Customs will permit the discharging of the ship as soon as he shall have received from the Consul the report drawn in due form. If the Captain of the ship should take upon himself to commence discharging without permission, he shall be fined five hundred taels and the goods so discharged shall be confiscated.
ARTICLE XXXIX.
Portuguese merchants having goods to ship off or to land, will have to obtain a special permission from the Superintendent of the Customs to that effect, without which all goods shipped or landed shall be liable to confiscation.
ARTICLE XL.
No transhipment of goods is allowed from ship to ship without special permission, upon pain of confiscation of all the goods so transhipped.
ARTICLE XLI
When a ship shall have paid all her dues in port, the Superintendent of Customs will grant her a certificate and the Consul will return the papers, in order that she may proceed on her voyage.
ARTICLE XLII.
When a doubt arises as to the value of goods which by the tariff are liable to an ad valorem duty, and the Portuguese merchant disagrees with the Custom house officers as regards the value of said goods, both parties will call two or three merchants to examine them, and the highest offer made by any of the said merchants to buy the goods at will be considered as their value.
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