§ Mr. PETOasked the President of the Board of Trade whether it has been brought to his knowledge that the granting of pilotage certificates to masters and mates under Section 599 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, represents financial saving to shipowners, particularly to those owning vessels engaged in the coasting trades, who thereby avoid the payment of ordinary pilotage dues in compulsory pilotage waters: whether he is aware that, with but very few exceptions, masters and mates holding these pilotage certificates, after examination, are granted no extra remuneration whatever; and whether, in the Pilotage Bill which is now before the House, he will embody some provision whereby, in cases where the pilotage certificates of masters and mates are availed of for purposes of pecuniary gain to shipowners, there will be some provision made that those whose pilotage certificates are thus availed of shall receive reasonable recompense from shipowners for their services?
Mr. BUXTONI have received and considered a communication on this subject from the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, but I do not think that the question of remuneration of masters and mates could be satisfactorily dealt with in a Pilotage Bill.