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Pt. XIV.

717. The Board of Trade may take any legal proceedings 717-720. under this Act in the name of any of their officers.

Expenses of Commissioners of Customs.

Legal proceedings.

[36 & 37 Vict. c. 85, s. 31.]

718. All expenses incurred by the Commissioners of Customs Expenses in the conduct of suits or prosecutions, or otherwise in carrying Commisincurred by into effect the provisions of this Act, shall be considered as sioners of expenses having reference to the Revenues of Customs, and shall Customs. be paid accordingly; but the Board of Trade may, with the [1851, s. 518.] consent of the Treasury, repay out of the Mercantile Marine Fund all or any part of such of the expenses so paid as are under this Act chargeable on that fund.

Documents and Forms.

719. All documents purporting to be made, issued, or written Proof of by or under the direction of the Board of Trade, and to be scaled documents. with the seal of the Board, or to be signed by their secretary or [1854, s. 7.] one of their assistant secretaries, or, if a certificate, by one of the officers of the Marine Department, shall be admissible in evidence in manner provided by this Act.

See s. 695, &c. as to admissibility.

Trade to pre

720.-(1.) Subject to any special provisions of this Act (a) the Power of Board of Trade may prepare and sanction forms for any book, Board of instrument, or paper required under this Act, other than those scribe forms. required under the First Part of this Act (b), and may make [1854, N. 8.] such alterations in these forms as they think fit.

(2.) The Board shall cause every such form to be sealed with their seal or marked with some other distinguishing mark, and before finally issuing any form or making any alteration in a form shall cause public notice thereof to be given in such manner as the Board think requisite in order to prevent inconvenience.

(3.) The Board of Trade shall cause all such forms to be supplied to all custom houses and mercantile marine offices in the United Kingdom, free of charge, or at such moderate prices as the Board may fix, or the Board may license any persons to print and sell the forms.

(4.) Every such book, instrument, or paper, required under this Act shall be made in the form (if any) approved by the Board of Trade, or as near thereto as circumstances permit, and unless so made shall not be admissible in evidence in any civil proceeding on the part of the owner or master of any ship (c).

(5.) Every such book, instrument, or paper, if made in a form purporting to be the proper form, and to be sealed or marked

Pt. XIV.

721-722. in accordance with this section, shall be deemed to be in the form required by this Act unless the contrary is proved.

Exemption
from stamp
duty.
[1854, s. 9.]

Offences as to use of forms.

[1854, s. 10.]

(a) Certain forms under Part III. (Passenger and Emigrant Ships) and the form of salvage bond under s. 558 are scheduled to the Act.

(b) As to such forms, see s. 65 and the 1st Schedule.

(c) As to admissibility of documents generally, see ss. 694, 695.

721. The following instruments shall be exempt from stamp duty :

(a.) any instruments used for carrying into effect the First
Part of this Act (a); and

(b.) any instruments used by or under the direction of the
Board of Trade in carrying into effect the Second,
Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Parts of this Act; and
(c.) any instruments which are by those Parts of this Act
required to be in a form approved by the Board of
Trade, if made in that form.

(a) See s. 65 and 1st Schedule.

Exemptions from stamp duty are also contained in various sections dealing with particular instruments.

722.—(1.) If any person—

(a.) forges, assists in forging, or procures to be forged, the seal or any other distinguishing mark of the Board of Trade on any form issued by the Board of Trade under this Act; or

(b.) fraudulently alters, or assists in fraudulently altering, or procures to be fraudulently altered, any such form, that person shall in respect of each offence be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(2.) If any person

(a.) when a form approved by the Board is, under the Second Part of this Act, required to be used, uses without reasonable cause a form not purporting to be a form so approved; or

(b.) prints, sells, or uses any document purporting to be a form approved by the Board of Trade, knowing the same not to be the form approved for the time being, or not to have been prepared or issued by the Board of Trade,

that person shall, for each offence, be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

Powers for Enforcing Compliance with Act.

723.-(1.) Where any of the following officers, namely:

any officer of the Board of Trade,

Pt. XIV. 723-724.

Powers for

seeing that Act is com

any commissioned officer of any of Her Majesty's ships on plied with.

full pay,

any British consular officer,

the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (a) or his

assistant,

any chief officer of Customs (b) in any place in Her
Majesty's dominions, or

any superintendent (b),

has reason to suspect that the provisions of this Act, or any law for the time being in force relating to merchant seamen or navigation, is not complied with, that officer may

(a.) require the owner, master, or any of the crew of any
British ship to produce any official log books or other
documents relating to the crew or any member thereof
in their respective possession or control;

(b.) require any such master to produce a list of all persons
on board his ship, and take copies of the official log
books, or documents, or of any part thereof;
(c.) muster the crew of any such ship (c); and

(d.) summon the master to appear and give any explanation
concerning the ship or her crew or the official log books
or documents produced or required to be produced.
(2.) If any person, on being duly required by an officer
authorised under this section, fails without reasonable cause to
produce to that officer any such official log book or document as
he is required to produce under this section, or refuses to allow
the same to be inspected or copied, or impedes any muster of the
crew required under this section, or refuses or neglects to give
any explanation which he is required under this section to give,
or knowingly misleads or deceives any officer authorised under
this section to demand any such explanation, that person shall
for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.
(a) See s. 251.

(b) As to who are included in these terms, see s. 742.

(c) Power to muster the crew is also now exerciseable under or for the purposes of s. 459 (unsafe ships), as amended by M. S. A. 1897, s. 1.

Surveyors of Ships.

[1854, s. 13.]

305, 307, 308;

724.-(1.) The Board of Trade may, at such ports as they Appointment think fit, appoint either generally or for special purposes, and of surveyors. on special occasion, any person they think fit to be a surveyor [1844, ss. 29, of ships for the purposes of this Act, and a person so appointed 35 & 36 Vict. (in this Act referred to as a surveyor of ships) may be appointed c. 73, ss. 13, either as a shipwright surveyor (a) or as an engineer surveyor or 15.]

as both.

Pt. XIV. 725.

Power of surveyor for purpose of survey of ships.

(2.) The Board of Trade may also appoint a surveyor general of ships for the United Kingdom (b).

(3.) The Board of Trade may remove any surveyors of ships and fix and alter their remuneration, and may make regulations as to the performance of their duties, and in particular as to the manner in which surveys of passenger steamers are to be made (c), as to the notice to be given by them when surveys are required, and as to the amount and payment of any travelling or other expenses incurred by them in the execution of their duties, and may by such regulations determine the persons by whom and the conditions under which the payment of those expenses is to be made.

(4.) If a surveyor of ships demands or receives directly or indirectly any fee, remuneration, or gratuity whatever in respect of any duties performed by him under this Act otherwise than by the direction of the Board of Trade, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(5.) The duties of a surveyor of ships shall be performed under the direction of the Board of Trade, and in accordance with the regulations made by that Board (d).

As to saving of appointments made under the repealed Acts, see s. 745.
As to surveyors appointed to survey emigrant ships, see s. 289, and note (e)

tnereto.

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(a) For "shipwright surveyor" read now ship surveyor." See M. S. A. 1906, s. 75.

(b) Besides appointing a surveyor-general, the Board may appoint such other principal officers in connection with the survey of ships and other matters incidental thereto as the Board think fit. See M. S. A. 1906, s. 75 (4). The surveyor-general is the proper officer, when required, to certify the tonnage of a foreign ship, which has not been, and cannot be, measured according to British law. See s. 503 (2) (c).

(c) Whether the Board of Trade have power to issue an instruction that declarations of survey shall not be made where vessels do not satisfy certain requirements, e.g., as to the material of which certain pipes are to be made, see Denny v. Board of Trade (1880) (Sc.), 7 Ct. of Sess. Cas. (4th series), 1019; 17 Sc. L. R. 694.

As to surveys of passenger ships, sce ss. 271 et seq.

() As to the general control of the Board of Trade, sce s. 713. The regulations under this section are contained in the "Instructions to surveyors, issued by the Board of Trade from time to time.

725.—(1.) A surveyor of ships in the execution of his duties (a) may go on board any steamship at all reasonable times, and inspect the same or any part thereof, or any of the machinery, boats, equipments, or articles on board thereof, or any certifi[1854, s. 306.] cates of the master, mate, or engineer (b) to which the provisions of this Act or any of the regulations made under this Act apply, not unnecessarily detaining or delaying the ship from proceeding on any voyage, and if in consequence of any accident to the ship or for any other reason they (c) consider it necessary so to do, may require the ship to be taken into dock for the purpose of surveying the hull thereof.

Pt. XIV.

(2.) If any person hinders any surveyor of ships from going 726—729. on board any steamship or otherwise impedes him in the execution of his duties under this Act, that person shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

(a) It seems doubtful whether the section here reproduced applied to any survey other than that for a passenger steamer's certificate; but as similar powers were given by various provisions relating to other surveys, the present section does not appear to alter the law.

(6) The engineer's certificate is now included in accordance with the policy of M. S. A. 1862, to place engineers in a similar position to masters and mates with regard to certificates.

(c) Sic.

Board of

726.-(1.) Surveyors of ships shall make such returns to the Returns by Board of trade as that Board may require with respect to the surveyors to build, dimensions, draught, burden, rate of sailing, room for fuel, Trade. and the nature and particulars of machinery and equipments [1854, s. 321.] of ships surveyed by them.

(2.) The owner, master, and engineer of any ship so surveyed shall, on demand, give to the surveyors all such information and assistance within his power as they require for the purpose of those returns.

(3.) If any owner, master, or engineer, on being applied to for that purpose, fails without reasonable cause to give any such information or assistance, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

727. The Governor of a British possession may appoint and Appointment remove surveyors of ships within the limits of the possession in colonies. of surveyors for any purposes of this Act to be carried into effect in that [31 & 32 Vict. possession.

Board of Trade Inspectors.

c. 129, s. 3; 50 & 51 Vict. c. 62, s. 3; see 1854, s. 31.]

728. The Board of Trade may as and when they think fit Appointment appoint any person as an inspector to report to them

of inspectors to report on

(a.) upon the nature and causes of any accident or damage accidents, &c. which any ship has sustained or caused, or is alleged [1854, s. 14.] to have sustained or caused; or

(b.) whether the provisions of this Act, or any regulations made under or by virtue of this Act, have been complied with; or

(c.) whether the hull and machinery of any steamship are

sufficient and in good condition (a).

(a) As to surveys of alleged unsafe ship, see s. 459 (b).

729.-(1.) An inspector so appointed (in this Act referred Powers of to as a Board of Trade inspector) and any person having the inspectors. powers of a Board of Trade inspector (a) —

[1854, s. 15; 24 & 25 Vict. c. 10, s. 24;

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