§ CAPTAIN PIMasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he will state to the House under what section, if any, of the Merchant Shipping Acts a passenger steamer is allowed to be surveyed by only one surveyor, as stated by him in answer to a recent question asked in this House; and, whether experience has shown that an efficient survey of a passenger steamer's hull and machinery can be made during the usually short time she remains in port, by one surveyor, however competent?
§ SIR CHARLES ADDERLEY,in reply, said, he could only repeat an Answer he had given to a former Question. Under the 305th section of the Act of 1854 surveyors were appointed. Under the 309th section passenger ships were surveyed by a shipwright and an engineer surveyor. In the case of iron vessels, the engineer surveyor was the iron shipwright surveyor. If one person was both an engineer surveyor and a shipwright surveyor, the object was then best attained by his making both surveys. The 307th section imposed on the Board of Trade the discretion of regulating the mode of survey. Experience had shown that a very efficient survey of a passenger steamer's hull and machinery could be made by one surveyor in the time which was called "short" in the Question, but which was ample in practice. If any surveyor was pressed for time, in a special case, he had always another to help him.