XN000022-1972-12-06 — Page 2

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Wednesday, December 6, 1972

MARINE DEPARTMENT EXERCISING STRICTER VIGILANCE IN HARBOUR

The Marine Department is exercising stricter vigilance in the

harbour to ensure that barbour regulations are enforced.

A department spokesman said that up to now, a total of 152 completed

court cases concerning contravention of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance and

Dangerous Goods Ordinance have been recorded since the beginning this year.

Altogether 439 summonses were issued during the period and the

fines so far totalled about $46,000. At present, there are 93 cages pending

court hearing and processing.

The spokesman described this "tightening-up" of port control by the

department as "a last resort to steer the minds of vessel-owners to the vital

significance of ship safety."

He deplored the relative inaction of the vessel-owners at large to

the repeated advice and warnings given by the department that a reasonable

atandard of safety should be maintained on board vessels while in port.

"With the advice largely went unheeded, a stricter control of the

port is both reasonable and inevitable," he said.

The spokesman recalled that a freighter was recently detained and

its master fined $4,000 for overloading, while a fishing vessel owner was

fined $500 for allowing his vessel to obstruct the Aberdeen fairway.

In another case, the master of a ship was fined $800 for failing

to have sufficient crew on board the ship while in port.

/Referring to