goods taken from the warehouse without payment of duty as stores, and such lock, &c., be wilfully opened or broken, or if such stores be secretly conveyed away, before the final departure of such ship on her foreign voyage, the master shall forfeit £20; and if any ship departing from any port shall not bring to at such stations as shall be appointed for the landing of officers, or for further examination previous to departure, the master shall forfeit £20.-S. 147 & 148.

Time of exportation and departure defined.-The time of exportation shall be that at which any goods shall be shipped on board the export ship, and that of the last clearance shall be deemed the time of departure of such ship.-S. 149.

Goods that may be prohibited to be exported. The following goods may be prohibited to be exported or carried coastwise:—Arms, ammunition, gunpowder, military and naval stores, and any articles capable of being converted into or made useful in increasing the quantity of military or naval stores, provisions, &c.; and if any goods so prohibited be exported, carried coastwise, or water-borne for that purpose, they shall be forfeited.-S. 150.

TRANSHIPMENT REGULATIONS.

[APPLICABLE TO GOODS BROUGHT TO THIS COUNTRY FROM

FOREIGN PARTS.]

*

(T. O., 26th April, 1850.)

1. All goods in transit to be in the position of goods entered for exportation only, and at the time of ship's report must be described by their specific name, and declared “in transit;" no goods described under a general denomination,

such as "Merchandise," or "Contents unknown," to be

entitled to the privilege.

2. Constructive warehousing to be entirely abolished, and in lieu thereof the following regulations adopted.

3. Report of the inward cargo to be made in duplicate, setting forth the marks and numbers, general description of the goods, consignee, &c.

4. A transit bond to be entered into, either by the consignee of the import ship for the whole cargo, or by each consignee for his own particular goods, if so desired; the bond to reach the integrity of the import as well as export transaction.

5. All goods to be indorsed on the export documents, as heretofore, except sugar, which is to be distinguished as refined or unrefined; the cocket and bill and bond note, and also one copy of inward report, to be forwarded to the Registrar of the station; the address of the shipper to appear on the cocket and bill, and that of the surety on the bond note.-Transhipment cockets to be of a different form to others, and none but transhipment goods to be indorsed thereon.

6. On the Registrar receiving the cocket and bill, he shall compare the same with the inward report, and, finding them to correspond, shall issue his order for the delivery of the goods from the import vessel into the custody of the licensed lighterman named, and in charge of a tidewaiter, to be conveyed to the dock or station designated. The Registrar to mark on the report against the said goods the

*These regulations are at present applicable only to the ports of London, Liverpool, Southampton, Hull, Goole, Grimsby, Newhaven, and Poole.

day and hour on which such order issued, and the name of the export ship.*

7. On the goods arriving at the docks, the tidewaiter is not to leave his charge, but the lighterman or merchant is to acquaint the Registrar, who will sign the cocket and bill, adding the hour and day of such certification: the cocket and bill to be then forwarded to the searcher for the station where the export vessel is lying; or if he is already sufficiently employed, the Registrar is to appoint a searcher for the particular duty, but observing that under no circumstances whatever is the cocket and bill to be given out of the hands of the Customs officers. The Registrar is to retain the bond note and report and proceed in the same manner with every cocket and bill presented to him, writing off the export ship against the inward report.

8. On the searcher receiving the cocket and bill, he is forthwith to visit the lighter, and if no unnecessary delay has taken place, he may at once issue the pricking note, authorizing the delivery of the goods into the export vessel, and at any time during the operation make such examination of the goods as will satisfy him as to their general identity, but is not called on to make any detailed examination of any particular package, unless suspicion exists, in which case he is to communicate with the landing surveyor, and take his directions thereon.

9. When it shall be necessary to examine any package of delicate goods, the merchant to be called on to make the necessary arrangements for so doing, if such should not exist at the station, and also to bear every expense incurred.

10. The merchant to make application for an officer to go in charge of every description of goods entered for transit, the expense attending the same to be borne by the merchant being charged at the rate of 6d. per hour, until the goods are finally taken on board the export ship, a deposit to be made in every case, or a general deposit to be made; but wine, spirits, tea, tobacco in cases, and boxes, bales or serons, shall be conveyed in deck craft only, secured under the Crown's locks.

* If there are several export ships taking parts of the cargo of one import vessel, it will be requisite that a copy of the inward report should be sent to every dock or station where an export vessel lies; but it would only be required in respect of the goods to be transhipped, and should be copied by the merchant from the Long Room Report, and signed by the clerk of the Inward Report Office.

11. Where the goods are conveyed by lighter, they are to be taken to the searcher on the station where the vessel is lying, within 24 hours in London, and 12 hours at the cutports; goods not so taken within such space of time to be subjected to more extended examination.

12. In order that transhipment may be confined to bona fide transactions, and that lighters may not be floating warehouses for unexamined goods, six days will be allowed for the completion of transhipments for all goods except for spirits, wines, tea, and tobacco, for which three days only will be allowed: if at the expiration of the time specified the shipment of the goods on board the export vessel shall not have commenced, the searcher is to refuse to certify to them as a transhipment, and shall call on the parties to warehouse them for exportation only, and the goods to be dealt with as if so originally entered.

13. Provided that goods be unavoidably shut out from the vessel for which they were originally entered to be exported, and another export vessel be ready to take the same, they may be short-shipped on the first documents, and on fresh bond and cocket issuing, a second term of time equal to the first may be granted for taking the goods on board the second vessel, but no second transfer to be allowed.

14. Where vessels are lying alongside each other, and the entire cargoes are to be taken out of the one vessel and put into the other, the Registrar shall specially appoint an officer to superintend the transaction, such officer to be furnished with the report inwards, and cockets and bill for the export vessel, and to check the documents with each other, and see that the facts of the case agree with the particulars indorsed. During the transit of the cargoes, which are to be tallied out of the one vessel into the other by different tidewaiters, the proper officer is to make such casual examination as will enable him to satisfy himself of the general integrity of the transaction, recording on the shipping bill the nature and extent of such examination. Should it be requisite to examine goods of a delicate nature, they may be examined in the cabin of the ship, if fit for such purpose and with the captain's consent, and his finding the means of properly opening and closing the package, otherwise the goods are to be sent to the nearest examining

floor for examination, in charge of a tidewaiter, at the merchant's expense.

15. When the goods are duly shipped in the export vessel, the searcher is to certify to the same, and forward the cocket and bill to the clearing office in the usual

manner.

16. When the export vessel or vessels have left the docks or river, the Registrar shall forward his copy of the inward report, with the names of the export ships indorsed thereon (as before directed), to the office searcher in town, who shall attach the same to the vessel's file of bills, which are to pass over to the examiner in the usual course for jerquing, and from the bills so jerqued, the accounts for statistical purposes are to be compiled. A blue book with a short copy to be forwarded by the searcher to the examiner.

17. All transhipments to be confined to the times specified in 110th section of the Regulation Act, and no transhipment operations to be continued after dark, unless with the express sanction of the board or principal officers at an outport.

18. In every case of transhipment, the export vessel not to be of less than 50 tons register.

19. These regulations supersede all others on the subject.

20. No transhipment to take place in the river below Deptford creek, and when practicable, the tidewaiters are to be relieved every eight hours during the winter, and every twelve hours in summer; and no lighter or lug boat is to convey transit goods, unless a proper shelter be constructed therein to protect the tide waiters from the inclemency of the weather.

N.B.-Since the foregoing regulations were framed in 1850, cockets have been abolished, and the tonnage of vessels carrying goods under bond reduced to 50 tons by "The Customs Consolidation Act, 1853."