§ Mr. BARNES (for Mr. Charles Duncan)asked whether the number of passengers allowed to be carried decreases as the age of a passenger-carrying vessel advances; if so, what was the basis, if any, of such decrease, or was the matter left to the discretion of the surveyor; and what age would the vessel have to reach before the Board of Trade would cease to grant a passenger certificate?
Mr. BUXTONThe Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, requires that whenever a 1298 steamer is surveyed for a passenger certificate, the surveyor must declare the number of passengers which the vessel is in his judgment fit to carry. The surveyor has therefore full power to reduce the number of passengers if, after consideration of all the circumstances, he decides that it would be advisable to do so. It would not be possible to lay down any general rule for regulating the number of passengers by the age of a vessel, but the Board of Trade would refuse to issue a passenger certificate to any vessel which, owing to age or any other cause, was not fit to ply with passengers on the intended route.