Mr. DUNDAS WHITEasked the President of the Board of Trade, in view of the provision in Clause 9 (1) of the Pilotage Bill that pilotage shall continue to be compulsory in every district in which it is compulsory at the passing of that measure, whether he will now give a list of the pilotage districts in which pilotage is compulsory; and whether he will consider the advisability of simplifying the law in this respect by embodying that list in a schedule to the Bill, to be afterwards modified or added to by pilotage Orders made under Clause 6 (1) (h) and Clause 9 (2) of the Bill?
Mr. BUXTONIt is not always possible to say definitely whether pilotage is compulsory or non-compulsory at any particular port without an examination and interpretation of the local Acts and Charters affecting pilotage at that port. One of the principal objects of the Bill is to provide that all questions of this kind affecting local pilotage authorities should be inquired into, and finally determined by Provisional Orders, thus simplifying the law. In the meantime it is proposed in the Bill that the position as regards pilotage at the various ports shall be undisturbed.