Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1909. SHIPPING AND SEAMEN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1909, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1909. SHIPPING AND SEAMEN.

Last year a very welcome consolidation of the law relating to shipping and seamen was effected in an Act of great length, but ' its symmetry and selfsufficiency are n£t to be allowed to remain long undisturbed. The Shipping and Seamen Amendment Bill which has been introduced in the House of Representatives by the Hon. J. A. Millar, as Minister of Marine, will absolutely riddle the consolidating Act with alterations, additions, and repeals. The Bill contains no less than fifty-eight clauses, and there aro also three schedules, of which one is a schedule of "Miscellaneous Amendments," nearly forty in number. Tho measure, therefore, does not fall far short of a hundred clauses, and some of them are of very considerable importance. In these circumstances, and especially as a majority of the amendments are absolutely unintelligible without vetWence to ono section, ru; another of tie principal Act*

an explanation of the main objects of the Bill from the Counsel to the Law Drafting Office would have been move than usually acceptable. This, however, is not tho first important Bill circulated during the present session without the explanatory memorandum for which wo have become- accustomed to look ever since the Attorney-General attracted Profes-hor Salmon d from Victoria College to his present position. There is, at any rate, one practice which the new regime has revived, with great advantage to the students of such a Bill as that before us. Where the* legislation of tho Imperial Parliament has been copied, references are given to the original provisions in the margin. Forty years ago this convenient practice was observed even .with Lhe completed measure as it appeared on the Statute Book, and the law draftsman is doing well in reviving it in. the case of Bills, so thai the reader knows exactly where a borrowed clause has come from, and may, if he desires, pursue his enquiry into the authorities and the experience that have interpreted it and tested it elsewhere. We accordingly learn from the margin of Mr. Millar's Bill that a consider- ! able portion of it is taken from Mr. I Lloyd-George's Merchant Shipping Amendment Act of 1906, and even from other Imperial Acts dating as far back as the consolidating measure of 1894. Though Mr. Lloyd-George's name has since become a terror in some eminently respectable quarters, because his Finance Bill proposes to exact a larger share of taxation from those whose large possessions enable themito pay it, the shipping legislation which he fathered as President of the Board of Trade was greeted with something like equal approval by Liberals, by Unionists, and by the representatives of Labour: A question on which Imperialists and Social Reformers were in entire agreement was the restriction of the unfair competition of foreign ■shipping exempt from the humanitarian legislation of Great Britain. Mr. LloydGeorge referred to the case of British ships which, after being condemned as unseaworthy, were transferred to a foreign register, and thereafter were able to trade with British ports with impunity. Mr. Millar's Bill follows that which Mr. Lloyd-George got the British Parliament to pass in making the whole of the provisions relating to load-lines and to the time for marking load-lines applicable to all foreign ships in New Zealand waters just as they apply to British ships. Another important privilege which the foreigner has enjoyed is the immunity from all effective liability in respect of accidents, and here, again, the lead of Mr. Lloyd-George's measure is followed' in establishing equality. The evasion by either a British or a foreign ship of liability, either for damages or for compensation for accidents, is made impossible by empowering the Supreme Court or the Arbitration Court to order the detention of the ship pending the satisfaction of any such claim, or the lodging of security for compliance with the judgment or award of the court ' before which the ■ claim is brought. More effective provision is also • made for the enforcement of the liability of 'shipowners for the expenses of medical attendance in case of illness or accident, and for the provision of sanitary accommodation, and Mr. Lloyd- George's clause requiring foreign-going ships to carry a duly certificated cook is also copied. On a large number of the other clauses Mr. Millar will have to enlighten the House pretty fully before he can expect them to proceed.