CO129-592-10 Future Policy in Hong Kong- Port Administration 10-4-1946 - 15-4-1947 — Page 186

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may conveniently be outlined under the four heads of (a) port and harbour provision; (b) river conservancy; (c) lights, buoys and seamarks; and (d) pilotage.

(9) Port and Harbour provision: Easily the first in importance is the under- taking of the Clyde Navigation Trustees, who administer the port of Glasgow and the river as far down as Port Glasgow. Adjoining this undertaking are the subordinate undertakings of the Cart Navigation, controlled by the Town Council of Paisley, and the Dumbarton Harbour Board at the mouth of the Leven. Port Glasgow harbour, once important, has now disappeared. Next to the Clyde Navigation Trustees, though substantially less in relative import- ance, comes the Greenock Harbour Trust. These are the only substantial dock authorities operating in the upper estuary and river, though account must also be taken of several marine works and wharves belonging to the railway companies and others.

On the Ayrshire coast on the lower estuary are the undertakings of the Ardrossan Harbour Company, the L.M. & S. Railway Company at Troon and Ayr, and the Irvine Harbour Company.

Glasgow, Greenock, Ardrossan and the Ayrshire ports are the only ports offering facilities for ocean trade or to any substantial extent, for coastwise traffic; and, if we except the distant ports of Stranraer and Campbeltown and the war emergency ports of Faslane and Cairnryan it may be accepted that all the remaining harbours or piers on the Clyde and its tributary lochs cater only for local passenger and goods traffic and for fishing vessels.

(10) River Conservancy: This function is discharged above Port Glasgow by the Clyde Navigation Trustees, and below Port Glasgow (including the remain- ing four miles of the dredged channel), by the Clyde Lighthouses Trust, whose area of jurisdiction extends to the Cumbraes.

(II) Lights, buoys and seamarks: Channel lights and buoys between Glas- gow and Port Glasgow are provided and maintained by the Clyde Navigation Trustees. Below Port Glasgow, lights, beacons and buoys are provided and maintained in the upper estuary by the Clyde Lighthouses Trust. Of the latter, three, (Little Cumbrae, Toward and Cloch) are major lights. In the lower estuary, excluding the Sound of Bute and Loch Fyne, the Northern Lighthouse Commisioners, as the general lighthouse authority for Scotland, maintain 12 major lights. In addition there are numerous minor lights mostly provided by local lighthouse authorities. Particulars of the lights, extracted from the Admiralty List of Lights for 1943, are set out in Appendix B.

(12) Pilotage: Pilotage Orders under the Pilotage Act, 1913, have been made with respect to the Clyde, Ardrossan, Ayr and Irvine.

The Clyde Pilotage Authority is a separate body corporate controlling the river and firth as far down as the Cumbraes. At Adrossan, Irvine and Ayr the respective dock authorities are the pilotage authorities.

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(13) The administrative lay-out may be shown in diagrammatic form thus:

Clyde Pilotage Authority

Clyde Lighthouses Trust

Northern Lighthouse Commissioners

Clyde Navigation Trustees

(Cart Navigation) (Dumbarton Harbour Board)

Greenock Harbour Trustees

Ardrossan Harbour Company

vine Harbour Company

}Irvine

}

Troon (L.M.S. Railway Co.)

Ayr (L.M.S. Railway Co.)

We now proceed to a more detailed examination of the constituent authorities, their powers and duties.

A. THE CLYDE NAVIGATION TRUST

(14) The undertaking originated in the hands of the Magistrates of Glasgow, with whom there came in time to be associated various representa- tives of trading interests. The first act was passed in 1759, and this act and seven later acts were consolidated in the Clyde Navigation Consolidation Act, 1858, which remains the principal act prescribing the general powers and duties of the Trustees. Since 1858 some 23 private acts have been passed for the purpose of authorising new works, amending the constitution of the Trust, and effecting sundry other changes in, and additions to, the Trust's powers.

(15) Under its present constitution, the broad structure of which dates from 1905, the Trust consists of no fewer than 42 members, appointed as follows:

Nominated by Glasgow Corporation

77

J

J

Lanarkshire County Council Dunbarton County Council

Dumbarton Town Council

Renfrew Town Council

Clydebank Town Council

Chamber of Commerce, Glasgow

Merchants House, Glasgow

2)

"

Trades House, Glasgow

Elected by Harbour Ratepayers

12

2

I

I

I

I

2

2

2

24

18

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