§ Order of the day for the Second Reading read.
* LORD BALFOURMy Lords, the object of this Bill is to remedy defects in previous legislation on this subject in regard to gross and registered tonnage of merchant shipping, as contained in the principal Act of 1854. The regulations there laid down are to the following effect: That in measuring for the gross tonnage the internal capacity of the ship is to be taken—that is, the hull and the erections upon and above the upper deck, which could be used for stores for passengers or for cargo—and then calculating the contents in cubic feet; dividing that by 100 the result would give the gross tonnage, with this exception—that all the space occupied by the crew, if it does not exceed 5 per cent, of the whole tonnage, is deducted from the result of the gross tonnage as arrived at. My Lords, in other words, therefore, the gross tonnage of the ship is the 1235 entire cubical capacity of the hull less the crew space if it does not exceed 5 per cent of that amount. In arriving at the registered tonnage on which dues are paid certain deductions are made in respect of the propelling power. That depends upon the size of the ship, and also varies according to whether the ship is propelled by paddles or screw. My Lords, that Act was amended by an Act passed in 1867, mainly in the interests of the seamen and crews employed in merchant vessels, and has for its object lightening the rates put upon those parts of the ship which are occupied by the crew, and it provides that all the crew spaces, whether above or below the deck, shall be deducted from the calculation for the registered tonnage. Of course, my Lords, this Act of 1867, and its provisions, were to that extent intended to come entirely in the place of the provisions of the Act of 1854; but the provisions of the Act of 1854 were not in so many words specifically repealed, and a year or two ago some ingenious person discovered that by taking the two Acts of Parliament and reading them together a ship-owner might be entitled to deduct from the registered tonnage under the Act of 1867 that which had not been calculated into the tonnage under the Act of 1854. For example, as I have already said, under the Act of 1854, 5 per cent of the crew space above deck was deducted from the gross tonnage before the gross tonnage was certified, and the whole of the crew space is entitled to be deducted under the Act of 1867. Therefore the crew space above deck, if it does not exceed 5 per cent of the whole tonnage, is not to be added under the Act of 1854, but it falls to be deducted under the Act of 1867. That, of course, would be obviously unfair, and one object of this Bill is to remedy that defect. My Lords, under the same Act of 1867 certain spaces which are placed above the engine room, and which obviously cannot be used for cargo, are also entitled to be deducted from the calculation for registered tonnage; but owing to the Act of 1867 those spaces are not calculated in the cubical capacity of the ship for the gross tonnage, and that defect is also proposed to be remedied by one of the clauses in this Bill. Your Lordships will easily under- 1236 stand that as some years have elapsed since those defects were first discovered a certain number of quasi-vested interests have arisen, and, therefore, the law as now proposed will require to be carefully applied and adjusted in reference to existing vessels which have been measured under those conditions. Your Lordships will find a clause in the Bill carefully prepared for the purpose of suiting the new order of things to the old, with the least possible hardship; but those matters will be the subject of consideration in Committee rather than upon the present occasion. My Lords, there are other provisions in the Bill, such as allowing sailing ships to make certain deductions from those calculations of tonnage, but those provisions are all matters of detail, and are in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Saving Life at Sea. My Lords, I think there is no further explanation which I can give at the present stage. I propose, if your Lordships will pass the Second Reading of the Bill, to refer it to one of the Standing Committees, and I move now that the Bill be read a second time.
Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to the Standing Committee for General Bills.