amending the Law in respect to the Coasting Trade and Merchant Shipping in British Possessions," Her Majesty As to foreign has agreed to grant to any ships of any foreign state, vessels privileged by any rights or privileges in respect of the coasting trade of treaty. Her Majesty's possessions, such rights and privileges shall be enjoyed by such ships, for so long as Her Majesty has already agreed, or may hereafter agree to grant the same,— anything in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

Act shall

This Act shall not come into operation, until the day When this to be appointed for that purpose, in a proclamation signify- take effect. ing Her Majesty's pleasure that it shall come into operation in Canada.

tion.

4. In this Act the term "British Ship" means and in- Interpretacludes all ships belonging wholly to persons and bodies corporate, qualified or entitled to be owners of British ships, under the provisions of " The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," or other Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in that behalf, in force for the time being.

CHAP. 28.

An Act further to amend "The Pilotage Act, 1873."

[Assented to 8th April, 1875.]

N further amendment of the Act passed in the thirty- Preamble.

66

respecting Pilotage," Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

1. Except as respects the River St. Lawrence so much of Sec. 57 the fifty-seventh section of the said Act as defines the ships amended. which shall be exempted from payment of pilotage dues, including the proviso at the end of the said section, is hereby repealed, and the following substituted therefor as part of the said section, that is to say :

"The following ships (called in this Act, exempted What shall be ships) shall be exempted from the compulsory payment of exempted pilotage dues :

ships.

(1.) Ships belonging to Her Majesty ;

(2.) Ships wholly employed in Her Majesty's service, while so employed, the masters of which have been appointed

Sec. 71 amended

as to pilots guilty of certain offences.

Appeal in
Quebec.

Secs. 11 and

Secretary

Treasurers, may be appointed and paid.

by Her Majesty's Government, either in the United Kingdom or in Canada;

(3.) Ships propelled wholly or in part by steam, employed in trading between the Provinces of Quebec, New Bruns wick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, or employed on voyages beginning at any port in any of the said Provinces and ending at the Port of New York, or any port of the United States of America on the Atlantic, north of New York, or vice versa;

(4.) Ships of not more than eighty tons, registered tonnage;

(5.) Any ship of which the master or any mate has a certificate granted under the provisions of this Act and then in force, authorizing him to pilot such ship within the limits within which she is then navigating;

(6.) Ships of such description and size, not exceeding two hundred and fifty tons, registered tonnage, as the pilotage authority of the district, with the approval of the Governor in Council, may from time to time determine, shall be exempted from the compulsory payment of pilotage in such district."

2. A pilot shall be liable to suspension or dismissal by the pilotage authority of the district, for any of the offences mentioned in the seventy-first section of the said Act, upon such evidence as the said authority deems sufficient, and whether he has or has not been convicted of or indicted for such offence. In the Pilotage District of Quebec any pilot shall have the right to appeal to the Superior Court for the Province of Quebec, from any judgment rendered against him by the pilotage authority; and for the purposes of such appeal the provisions contained in section seventythree of the Act of the legislature of the late Province of Canada, twelfth Victoria, chapter one hundred and fourteen, shall apply.

3. Sections eleven and sixteen of the said Act, authorizing 16 repealed. the appointment by the Governor of the Secretary and Treasurer of the Halifax and St. John Pilot Commissioners respectively are hereby repealed; and the pilotage authority of any district other than the Pilotage authority of Quebec may, with the sanction of the Governor in Council, appoint a secretary and treasurer, and pay him such salary or remuneration, out of pilotage dues or fees for licenses received by them, as they may see fit, and may, with such sanction and out of such funds, pay any other necessary expenses of conducting the pilotage business of the district.

Pilotage

business in District of

4. In the Pilotage District of Quebec all the pilotage business done by the Trinity House of Quebec shall conQuebec to be tinue to be done by the Quebec Harbour Commission, and by its officers, from and after the first day of January, 1876.

done by Harbour Commission.

CHAP.

CHAP. 29.

An Act to extend certain provisions of "The Seamen's
Act, 1873," to vessels employed in navigating the
Inland Waters of Canada.

[Assented to 8th April, 1875.]

WHEREAS "The Seamen's Act, 1873" does not apply Preamble.

to the Inland Waters of the Dominion; and whereas, 36 V., c. 129. under the provisions of section twenty-six of the said Act, no master of any ship whatever of less than eighty tons, registered tonnage, and no master of any ship of that tonnage or upwards trading from any port or place in any Province to which the said Act applies, to any other port or place in the same Province, is required to enter into an agreement with seamen whom he carries as his crew; and whereas it is expedient that masters of certain British ships navigating the inland waters aforesaid, not required either by the said section twenty-six or by section twenty-seven of the said Act to enter into any agreement with the seamen whom they carry as part of their crews, should be required to enter into such agreement: Therefore Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Sea- Short title. men's Agreement Act, 1875."

2. In the construction and for the purposes of this Act, Interpreta(if not inconsistent with the context or subject matter) the tion. following words shall have the respective meanings hereinafter assigned to them, that is to say:

"Ship" shall include every description of vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars;

Ship.

"Master" shall include every person (except a pilot) Master. having command or charge of a ship;

"Seamen" shall include every person (except masters and Seamen. pilots) employed or engaged in any capacity on board any ship;

"Consular officer " shall include Consul General, Consul, Consular and Vice-Consul, and any person for the time being dis- officer. charging the duties of Consul General, Consul or ViceConsul;

"The Minister" shall mean the Minister of Marine and Minister. Fisheries;

Ship subject

to the pro

Act.

"Ship subject to the provisions of this Act" shall include visions of this every ship registered in Canada propelled by steam and of more than twenty tons, registered tonnage, or propelled otherwise than by steam and of more than fifty tons registered tonnage, and employed in navigating the inland waters of Canada above the harbour of Quebec: Provided that this Act shall not apply to barges and scows navigating rivers and canals.

ter and crew, Form of.

Agreement 3. The master of every ship subject to the provisions of between mas- this Act, shall enter into an agreement with every seaman whom he carries as one of his crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and every such agreement shall be in the form of the Schedule A, annexed to this Act, or as near thereto as circumstances admit, and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seaman signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars as terms thereof, that is to say:

Particulars.

To be so

framed as to

admit of cer

tions.

1. The nature and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement;

2. The number and description of the crew, specifying how many are engaged as sailors;

3. The time at which each seaman is to be on board or to begin work;

4. The capacity in which each seaman is to serve;

5. The amount of wages which each seaman is to receive;

6. Any regulations as to conduct on board, and as to fines, or other lawful punishments for misconduct which the parties agree to adopt :

And every such agreement shall be so framed as to admit of stipulations, to be adopted at the will of the master and tain stipula- seamen in each case, as to advances, and may contain any other stipulations which are not contrary to law; and every such agreement must be made and signed in presence of a respectable witness, or a shipping master or chief officer of customs, who shall attest each signature on such Discharge of agreement. And any seaman who has signed any such agreement may at the termination of his engagement, if the master thinks fit, be discharged before any shipping master or chief officer of customs in Canada; and at any period during any such engagement, and before its termination, it shall be lawful for the master to discharge any such seaman on payment of his wages, and with his consent; and any such discharge may be made, if the master thinks fit, before any shipping master or chief officer of customs in Canada.

seamen, how effected.

4. In the case of ships subject to the provisions of this Duration of Act making short voyages, running agreements with the agreement. crew may be made to extend over two or more voyages, or for a specified time, so that no such agreement shall extend beyond eight months from the date of such agreement, or the first arrival of the ship at her port of destination after the termination of such agreement, or the discharge of cargo consequent upon such arrival; and every person entering Engagement into such agreement, whether engaged upon the first comanddischarge. mencement thereof, or otherwise, shall enter into and sign the same in the manner herein before required; and every person engaged thereunder when discharged may be discharged in the manner hereinbefore provided for.

5. If, in any case, the master of any ship subject to the Penalty for carrying seaprovisions of this Act, carries any seaman as one of his crew man without without entering into an agreement with him, in the form agreement. and manner and at the place and time in such case required, such master shall, for each such offence, incur a penalty not exceeding twenty dollars.

proved.

6. Every erasure, interlineation or alteration in any such Erasures, &c., agreement with seamen as is required by this Act, (except void, unless in agreement additions so made for shipping substitutes or persons consent of all engaged subsequently to the first departure of the ship) shall parties be be wholly inoperative, unless proved to have been made with the consent of all the persons interested in such erasure, interlineation or alteration, by the written attestation (if made in Her Majesty's Dominions), of some shipping master, justice, officer of customs, or other public functionary, or, (if made out of Her Majesty's Dominions) of a British consular officer, or where there is no such officer, of two respectable witnesses.

7. Every person who fraudulently alters, assists in fraud- Penalty for ulently altering, or procures to be fraudulently altered, or fraudulently altering makes or assists in making or procures to be made, any false agreement, entry in, or delivers, assists in delivering, or procures to be &c. delivered a false copy of any agreement under this Act, shall for each such offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

8. Any seaman may bring forward evidence to prove the Proof of contents of any agreement under this Act or otherwise to agreement. support his case, without producing or giving notice to produce the agreement or any copy thereof.

9. Any seaman who has signed an agreement under this Right of seaAct, and is afterwards discharged before the commencement man discharged withof the voyage, or before one month's wages are earned, out cause without fault on his part justifying such discharge and before the without his consent, shall be entitled to receive from the term of agreemaster or owner, in addition to any wages he may have ment.

earned,

end of his