Powers and duties of rities. tenance of the lighthouses, buoys and beacons, under the congeneral light- trol of the three general lighthouse authorities of the United house autho- Kingdom, the Trinity House of Deptford Strond, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights (1). These provisions, amongst other things, empower the Trinity House of Deptford Strond to enter and view any lighthouses within the jurisdiction of either of the two latter bodies, and enable the Board of Trade, upon complaint that any lighthouse, buoy, or beacon under the management of any of the general lighthouse authorities, is inefficient or improperly managed, or unnecessary, to appoint inspectors to make inquiry into the matter (m); and further provide that the general lighthouse authorities shall, for certain purposes and with the sanction of the Board of Trade, have control over such local lighthouse authorities as are within their respective jurisdictions (n). Levying of light dues. The 396th section of the act provides for the levying of light dues in respect of the lighthouses, buoys and beacons which were in existence within the jurisdictions of the general lighthouse authorities at the time of the coming into operation of the act; and sections 397 and 410 empower her Majesty, by order in council, to reduce, increase, vary or alter the light dues payable in respect of either existing or future lighthouses, buoys, and beacons within such jurisdictions, and to fix the light dues to be payable in respect of any new lighthouse, buoy, or beacon (o); whilst sect. 398 empowers the three general lighthouse authorities, with the consent of her Majesty in council, to alter the light dues receivable by them, and to exempt any ships or classes of ships from the payment of light dues, and annex any terms or conditions to such exemption (p). By sect. 403, all light dues coming to the hands of the three general lighthouse authorities are to be carried to the account of the Mercantile Marine Fund (2). (1) The M. S. Act, 1854, ss. 389, (n) See also sect. 413 as to the sur- (0) See Appendix, Orders in Council, pp. 31-33, and Supplementary Appendix, p. 172. Tables of all light dues, and all copies of the regulations in force in respect thereof, must by sect. 399 of the M. S. Act, 1854, be posted up at all custom houses in the United Kingdom. (p) See Appendix, Orders in Council, pp. 34-35, Supplementary Appendix, p. 172. (9) As to this fund see the M. S. Act, 1854, ss. 417-430. See 16 & 17 Vict. c. 131, s. 24, as to the cases where the consent of the Board of Trade is required before the mortgage or sale of light dues. recovery of By sect. 44 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1862, the persons Payment and liable to pay light dues for any ship are declared to be the owner light dues. or master and the consignees or agents of the ship who have paid or made themselves liable to pay any other charge on account of the ship at the port of arrival or discharge (s). And by sect. 45, all consignees or agents (not being the owners or masters) who are made liable by the act for the payment of light dues may retain the amount paid by them in these cases from any moneys in their hands belonging to the owners of the ship. houses and The same act contains, in sects. 46, 47, provisions as to the Local lightinspection of local lighthouses, buoys, and beacons, and as to the local light levying from ships, and the application of dues for local light- dues. houses, which it is not necessary to mention here in detail (t). By the 39 & 40 Vict. c. 27, it is provided that local lighthouse authorities may, with the consent of her Majesty in Council, reduce all or any of the light dues receivable by such authority (u). The lighthouses, buoys, and beacons in the Thames are now vested in and under the control of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond (v). removing buoys, &c. By sect. 415 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, when a fire Offence of or light is burnt or exhibited so as to be liable to be mistaken false signals, exhibiting for a light proceeding from a lighthouse, the general lighthouse &c., and authority for the district may require it to be extinguished or effectually screened. It is moreover provided by sect. 47 of the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97 (the general act relating to malicious injuries to property), that if any person unlawfully masks, alters, or removes a light or signal, or unlawfully exhibits any false light or signal, with intent to bring any ship, vessel, or (s) By the same section it is provided, that light dues shall be recoverable in the same manner as penalties of the same amount are recoverable under the M. S. Act, 1854. See s. 518, and supra, p. 189. As to colonial lighthouses, see the M. S. Act, 1855, ss. 2-7, and the Basses Lights Acts, 1864 and 1872 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 77; 35 & 36 Vict. c. 55). The Admiralty Court formerly exercised jurisdiction in suits of beaconage. Crosse v. Digges, 1 Siderfin, 158. (t) As to the jurisdiction of the Trinity Houses of Hull and Newcastle as local lighthouse authorities, see The Report of the Parliamentary Com mittee on Lighthouses, 1845; 6 & 7 (u) See Appendix, p. cccxxxvi. Costs of advertising houses, &c. boat into danger, or unlawfully and maliciously does anything tending to the immediate loss or destruction of any ship, vessel, or boat, he shall be guilty of felony. By sect. 48 of this act, it is also made felony unlawfully and maliciously to cut away, cast adrift, remove, alter, deface, sink, or destroy, or in any other manner unlawfully and maliciously to injure, or conceal, any boat, buoy, buoy rope, perch, or mark used or intended for the guidance of seamen, or the purpose of navigation (x). The 6th section of the Merchant Shipping Act (Payment of foreign light- Fees), 1880, provides that such reasonable costs as the Board of Trade from time to time allow of advertising or otherwise making known the establishment of or alteration in foreign lighthouses, buoys, and beacons, to owners and masters of, and other persons interested in, British ships, shall be paid out of the Mercantile Marine Fund (y). INQUIRIES AND WRECKS AND Preliminary inquiries by coast guard or other officer. Jurisdiction of magistrates The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1876, and the Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 72), contain the following provisions for instituting preliminary inquiries, and holding formal investigations, in cases of shipping casualties. By sect. 432 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, it is provided, that whenever any ship is lost, abandoned, or materially damaged, on or near the coasts of the United Kingdom, or causes loss, or material damage, to another ship on or near these coasts, and whenever loss of life ensues by reason of any casualty to or on board of a ship on or near these coasts, and whenever any of these event happens elsewhere and competent witnesses of it arrive in the United Kingdom, the inspecting officer of the coastguard, or principal officer of customs, nearest to the place of the occurrence, or near to the place where the witnesses arrive or can be conveniently examined, or a person appointed by the Board of Trade, may make inquiry into the matter (≈). By sect. 433, if the person entitled to make this inquiry thinks to hold formal that a formal investigation is expedient, or if the Board of Trade so directs, application may be made to two justices or to a stipen investiga tions. (x) The doing of any acts with intent to commit any of the offences mentioned in this section, is also made a felony. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 48. (y) 43 & 44 Vict. c. 12, Appendix p. ccclxxm. As to this fund, see the M. S. Act, 1854, ss. 417-429. See also 16 & 17 Vict. c. 131, in part re pealed by the Merchant Shipping Act Repeal Act, 1854, ss. 4 and 8. (2) All the powers given by the act to inspectors appointed by the Board of Trade are vested in these persons. M. S. Act, 1854, s. 432. See the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 14. diary magistrate to hear the case. Where this is done the person entitled to make the inquiry must superintend the management of the case and assist the justices, who are bound, upon its conclusion, to send a statement of the case, and of their opinion upon it, to the Board of Trade (a). The act, by sect. 436, gives to the justices a power over the costs of the inquiry, and provides that they shall be recoverable in the same manner as costs incurred in summary proceedings (b). Board of loss of ship. The 22nd section of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1873, pro- Notice to vides, that if the managing owner, or, in the event of there Trade of being no managing owner, the ship's husband of any British apprehended ship have reason, owing to her nonappearance or to any other circumstance, to apprehend that she has been wholly lost, he shall, as soon as conveniently may be, send to the Board of Trade notice in writing of such loss and of the probable occasion thereof, stating the name of the ship and her official number (if any), and the port to which she belongs. If he neglects to do so within a reasonable time he incurs a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds (c). of the wreck The 29th section of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876, enacts Jurisdiction that for the purpose of rendering investigations into shipping commissioncasualties more speedy and effectual it shall be lawful for the ers. Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to appoint from time to time some fit person or persons to be a wreck commissioner or wreck commissioners for the United Kingdom, so that there shall not be more than three such commissioners at any one time, and to remove any such wreck commissioner; and provides that in case it shall become necessary to appoint a wreck commissioner in Ireland, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland shall have the appointment and the power of removal of such wreck commis (a) See Ex parte Ferguson, L. R., 6 Q. B. 280. As to the assessors summoned on such investigations, see post, p. 688; and for provisions extending the jurisdiction conferred by these sections, see post, p. 689. By sect. 435 of the M. S. Act, 1854, whenever there is a local marine board in existence, and a stipendary magistrate is a member of it, the investigation must be before him if present. (b) Sect. 437 provides for the carrying on in Scotland of investigations of this kind. (c) See also the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 326 (supra, p. 139), which provides that notice of any material damage caused to Procedure on gations. sioner. The section also provides, that it shall be the duty of a wreck commissioner, at the request of the Board of Trade, to hold any formal investigation into a loss, abandonment, damage, or casualty (in the act called a shipping casualty) under the eighth part of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and that for that purpose he shall have the same jurisdiction and powers as are thereby conferred on two justices, and that all the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1876, with respect to investigations conducted under the eighth part of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, shall apply to investigations held by a wreck commissioner (d). The 30th section of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876, prosuch investi- vides that the wreck commissioner, justices, or other authority holding a formal investigation into a shipping casualty, shall hold the same with the assistance of an assessor or assessors of nautical, engineering, or other special skill or knowledge (e); and that each assessor shall either sign the report made on the investigation, or report to the Board of Trade his reasons for his dissent therefrom. Assessors. Practice Place of holding investigation. The same section further provides that general rules for carrying into effect the enactments relating to shipping casualties shall be from time to time made by the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, with the consent of the Treasury, so far as relates to fees; and that every formal investigation into a shipping casualty shall be conducted in such manner that if a charge is made against any person that person shall have an opportunity of making a defence (ƒ). With a view of obviating any difficuly with respect to the local limits of the jurisdiction of the authority holding any (d) Only one wreck commissioner has at present been appointed. The salaries of the wreck commissioners are to be paid out of monies provided by Parliament. M. S. Act, 1876, s. 39. (e) As to the appointment of these assessors, see the M. S. Act, 1876, s. 30; 42 & 43 Vict. c. 72, s. 3, subs. 1, 2 (Appendix, p. ccclxxa), and Supplementary Appendix, pp. 193-195. As to their remuneration see the M. S. Act, 1876, s. 39. In cases where the investigation involves, or is likely to involve, any question as to the cancelling or suspension of the certificate of a master, mate or engineer, it must be held with the assistance of not less than two assessors having experience in the merchant service. 42 & 43 Vict. c. 72, s. 3, subs. 3 (Appendix, p. ccclxxa). (f) All such general rules are to have effect as if enacted in the M. S. Act, 1876. (M. S. Act, 1876, s. 30.) The general rules now in force are printed in the Appendix, "Forms," No. 54, pp. cccclxxx-cccclxxxiii, and Supplementary Appendix, pp. 193– 195. As to the expenses of witnesses on such inquiries see "Forms," No. 52, Appendix, cccclxx. As to the prac tice prevailing in the Court of the Wreck Commissioner, see the judg ment in The Dinorah, Nautical Magazine for March, 1877, p. 320. |