MARINE DEPARTMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1203, 11 August 1911, Page 2

MARINE DEPARTMENT.

Tho annual report of the Marino Department contains a suggestion that it may bo found necessary to amend (ho Shipping and Seamen Act to prevent a practices by which seamen iuay be deprived of tho beasfits coul'errcd upon them by the Act. A representation has been mario to the- Department that a steamship owner is entering • into agreements with his crews for periods of three months, in order to reduce his liability in case of illness, and the law at pwso.'it provides no power to meet tins. Durinp: vl>o year survey .certificates were issued ftjr 259 steamers, 82 oil-engine vessels, and 17 inter-colonial sailing vessels. ■ Tho casualties to ships on or near tho coasts of the Dominion numbered 76, representing SD.OGU tons, compared with t>3, of 47,R57 tons, i;> 1010; tho (eld wrecks wcro Ihreo, of 1110 tons register, compared with eleven of 1517 tons in die previous year. Seven lives were lost, three being passengers who disappeared from vesrels, Tho ordinary expenditure of the DcpartiiHSnt was JJ51.753. The maintenance of tho coastal lighthouses amounted to .€17,230, and the net expenditure on the four Government steamers was .£18,126. Tho expenditure in connection with the Meteorological Office amounted to .£2201 10s. 2d.. and the exixsiifes involved by tho protection of fish and oytters totalled ,£3115.