A PROCLAMATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 206, 6 August 1862, Page 7

A PROCLAMATION.

Bringing into force certain regulations touching the carnage of passengers from \ew Zealand to other English possessions in Australasia. By His Excellency Sir George Grey, Knight, Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colouy of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same kc, kc, kc

Whereas, by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, passed in the Session held in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth years of Her present Maiesty's reign, intituled " An Act to empower the Governors of the several Australian Colonies to regulate the number of dasseugers to be carried in vessels plying between Ports in those Colonies," it is amongst other things enacted that it shaU be lawful for the Governor of each of her Majesty's Colonies already or hereafter to be established in Australasia, by any Proclamation to be by him from time to time issued for the purpose (which Proclamation shall take effect from the issuing thereof, if no day shall be named therein for 'the purpose),to prescribe such rules as he shall think proper for determining the number cf passengers to be carried in any passenger ship which shall proceed from any such Colony to any other of Her Majesty's possessions for the time being in Australasia, and for determining on what deck or decks and subject to what reservations or conditions passengers may be carried, and also to prescribe such penalties for the infraction or nonobservanc of such Rules as to such Governor may seem proper; and it is also enacted that from the time when any such proclamation shall take effect and so long as the same shall continue in force the rules and enactments contained in " The Passengers Act, 1855," relating to the number of passengers to be earned in any passenger ship, and the deck o decks whereon they are to be carried, shall cease to apply to any vessel to which such proclamation shaU be applicable, saAe only as to the recovery and application of any penalty for any offence committed against the said Act before such proclamation shall take effect: Now, therefore, I, Sir George Grey, the Governor of J\ew Zealand, in exercise of the power vested in me by the above recited Act, do issue this mv proclamation, to take effect from the ltith day of June one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and I do hereby prescribe the rules hereinafter set forth for determining the number of passengers who may be carried in any passenger ship which shall proceed from the Colony of New Zealand to any other of Her Majesty's possessions for the time being in Australasia, and on what deck or decks and under what reservations or conditions passengers may be carried and the penalties for the infraction or non-observance of such rules, that is to say :— A.- Sailing Vessels. 1- No ship propelled by sails only shall carry a greater number of persons (including every individual on board) than in the proportion of one statute adult to every two tons of her registered tonnage. 2. No ship shall carry under the poop or in the round-house or deck-house or on the upper passengerdeck a. greater number of passengers than in the proportion of one statute adult to every twelve clear superficial feet of deck aUoted to their use. 3. No ship shall carry on her lower passenger-deck a greater number of passengers than in the proportion of one statute adult to every fifteen clear superficial feet of deck alloted to their use,provided, nevertheless, that if the height between such lower passen-ger-deck and the deck immediately aboA'e it shaU be less than seven feet, or if the apertures (exclusive of side scuttles) through which light and air shah be admitted together to the lower passenger-deck, shaU be less in size than in the proportion of three square feet, to every one hundred superficial feet ofthe lower passenger deck, no greater number of passengers shall be carried on such deck than in the proportion of one statute adult to every twenty-five clear superficial feet thereof. 4. No ship, whatever be her tonnase or superficial epace of passenger-decks, shall carry a greater number of passengers on the whole than in the proportion of one statute adult to every five superficial feet clear for exercise on the upper deck or poop (if secured, and fitted on the top with a railingor guard to the satisfaction ofthe Emigrant Officera tthe port of clearance,) on any round-house or deck-house. 5. In the measurement of the passenger-decks poop, round-house, or deck-house, the space for the -hospital and that occupied by such portion of the personal luggage of the passengers as the Emigration Officer may permit to be carried there, shall be included. B.—STEAMERS. The number of passengers who may be carried on board of any vessel propelled by steam power shall be ascertained and determined in manner folloAving 1. Measure in cubic feet the clear space alloted to fore-cabin passengers between decks, and divide the cubic contents by 72.

2. Count the number of sleeping berths exclusively provided for the accomodation of fore-cabin passengers, and add to it the number obtained as above. 3. The total number thus obtained is the total number of fore-cabin passengers who may be carried. 4. Proceed in the same manner with the space alloted to after-cabin passengers. The results of the said computations shall determine the number of fore-cabin and after-cabin pas- [ sengere respectively who may be carried on board of a vessel propelled by steam power,and aU passengers on board thereof shall be included in one or other of the said denominations. PEKALTIES. If there shall be on board of any ship or vessel at or after the time of clearance a greater number either of persons or passengers (except by births at sea) than in the proportions respectively hereinbefore mentioned, the master of such ship or vessel shaU be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds nor less than one pound sterling tor each person or passenger constituting such excess. Given under my hand, at Wellington, and issued under the Seal of the Colony of New Zealand, this sixteenth day of May, m the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, G. Gret. By His Excellency's command, William Fox. God Says thb Queen !