10. There shall be no appeal from a decree or order of the High Court As to appeals of Admiralty of England made on appeal from the County Court when to the Queen such decree or order affirms the judgment of the County Court, except by in council in express permission of the judge of the High Court of Admiralty. When admiralty upon an appeal the High Court of Admiralty alters the judgment of the County Court no leave to appeal to her Majesty in council shall be necessary (o). causes. 11. Where an admiralty cause has been heard in the County Court with In what cases the assistance of nautical assessors, elder brethren of the Trinity House assessors shall shall be summoned to assist on the hearing of an appeal by the High be summoned. Court of Admiralty if either party shall require the same, and the judge of the High Court shall be of opinion that the assistance of the elder brethren is necessary or desirable. 12. The several enactments specified in Schedule (C.) to this act are Enactments in hereby repealed to the extent mentioned in the third column of the said schedule (C.) schedule; but this repeal shall not affect the course of any proceeding repealed. taken before such repeal. 13. This act and the County Courts Act, 1846, and the several acts altering or amending the same, shall be construed together as one act, and this act may be cited as "The County Courts Act, 1875." 14. This act shall come into operation on the second day of November next after the passing hereof. This act and other County Courts Acts to be construed together. Commencement of act. An Act to amend the Law relating to the Stamping of Policies of Sea WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to the stamping of Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. From and after the passing of this Act a policy of sea insurance, by Policy stamped which the separate and distinct interests of two or more persons are for total and (0) See the Judicature Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 66), ss. 3, 16, 18, 19, 34, 42, 44; and the Court of Judica ture (Commencement) Act, 1874 (37 & not upon separate interests may be stamped with further duty. Section 16 of the Stamp Act, 1870, to apply to poli cies of sea insurance. Penalty. on stamping, 1007. Title of act. insured, being stamped in respect of the aggregate of such interests, but not duly stamped in respect of each of such interests, may be stamped with an additional stamp or stamps at any time within one month after the last risk has been declared. 2. From and after the passing of this act, section sixteen of the Stamp Act, 1870 (p), shall apply to a policy of sea insurance. Such policy shall, for the purposes of the said section, be an instrument which may legally be stamped after the execution thereof, and the penalty payable by law on stamping the same as aforesaid shall be the sum of one hundred pounds. 3. This act may be cited as "The Sea Insurances (Stamping of Policies) Amendment Act, 1876." Short title. Power to reduce local light dues. Definition of "local authority." 39 & 40 VICT. C. 27. An Act to authorize the Reduction of Local Light Dues. BE it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the 1. This act may be cited as "The Local Light Dues Reduction Act, 1876." 2. Any local authority not otherwise empowered may and is hereby authorized and empowered from time to time, with the consent of her Majesty in council, to reduce all or any dues for the time being receivable by such local authority in respect of lighthouses, buoys, or beacons. The term "local authority" in this act shall mean any person or body of persons having by law or usage authority over local lighthouses, buoys, or beacons. The 39 & 40 Vict. c. 28, which is entitled "An Act to amend the Court of Admiralty (Ireland) Act, 1867, and confer a more extended Admiralty Jurisdiction on the Recorders of Cork and Belfast," it is considered not necessary to set out. Short title. Construction of act. 39 & 40 VICT. c. 80. An Act to amend the Merchant Shipping Acts. [15th August, 1876.] BE it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Preliminary. 1. This act may be cited as "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1876." 2. This act shall be construed as one with the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the acts amending the same; and the said acts and this act may be cited collectively as The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1876." (p) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 97. 3. This act shall come into operation on the first day of October 1876 Commence(which day is in this act referred to as the commencement of this act); ment of act. nevertheless any orders in council and general rules under this act may be made at any time after the passing of this act, but shall not come into operation before the commencement of this act. Unseaworthy Ships. 4. Every person who sends or attempts to send or is party to sending Sending unor attempting to send a British ship to sea in such unseaworthy state that seaworthy ship the life of any person is likely to be thereby endangered, shall be guilty to sea a misof a misdemeanor, unless he proves that he used all reasonable means to demeanor. insure her being sent to sea in a seaworthy state, or that her going to sea in such unseaworthy state was, under the circumstances, reasonable and justifiable, and for the purpose of giving such proof he may give evidence in the same manner as any other witness (q). Every master of a British ship who knowingly takes the same to sea in such unseaworthy state that the life of any person is likely to be thereby endangered shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, unless he proves that her going to sea in such unseaworthy state was, under the circumstances, reasonable and justifiable, and for the purpose of giving such proof he may give evidence in the same manner as any other witness. A prosecution under this section shall not be instituted except by or with the consent of the Board of Trade, or of the governor of the British possession in which such prosecution takes place. A misdemeanor under this section shall not be punishable upon summary conviction. respect to use of reasonable efforts to secure seaworthiness. 5. In every contract of service, express or implied, between the owner Obligation of of a ship and the master or any seaman thereof, and in every instrument shipowner to of apprenticeship whereby any person is bound to serve as an apprentice crew with on board any ship, there shall be implied, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, an obligation on the owner of the ship, that the owner of the ship, and the master, and every agent charged with the loading of the ship, or the preparing thereof for sea, or the sending thereof to sea, shall use all reasonable means to insure the seaworthiness of the ship for the voyage at the time when the voyage commences, and to keep her in a seaworthy condition for the voyage during the same: Provided, that nothing in this section shall subject the owner of a ship to any liability by reason of the ship being sent to sea in an unseaworthy state where, owing to special circumstances, the so sending thereof to sea is reasonable and justifiable. 6. Where a British ship, being in any port of the United Kingdom, is, by reason of the defective condition of her hull, equipments, or machinery, or by reason of overloading or improper loading, unfit to proceed to sea without serious danger to human life, having regard to the nature of the service for which she is intended, any such ship (hereinafter referred to as "unsafe") may be provisionally detained for the purpose of being surveyed, and either finally detained or released, as follows: (1.) The Board of Trade, if they have reason to believe on complaint, or otherwise, that a British ship is unsafe, may provisionally order the detention of the ship for the purpose of being surveyed. (2.) When a ship has been provisionally detained there shall be forthwith served on the master of the ship a written statement of the grounds of her detention, and the Board of Trade may, if they think fit, appoint some competent person or persons to survey the ship and report thereon to the Board. (9) See Lewis v. Gray, 1 C. P. Div. 452, decided on the M. S. Act, 1873, s. 11. Power to detain unsafe ships and procedure for such detention. Constitution of Court of Survey for appeals. (3.) The Board of Trade on receiving the report may either order the (4.) Before the order for final detention is made a copy of the report (6.) Where a ship has been provisionally detained, the Board of Trade (7.) The Board of Trade may at any time, if satisfied that a ship detained under this act is not unsafe, order her to be released either upon or without any conditions. (8.) For the better execution of this section, the Board of Trade, with the consent of the Treasury, may from time to time appoint a sufficient number of fit officers, and may remove any of them. (9.) Any officer so appointed (in this act referred to as a detaining officer) shall have the same power as the Board of Trade have under this section of provisionally ordering the detention of a ship for the purpose of being surveyed, and of appointing a person or persons to survey her; and if he thinks that a ship so detained by him is not unsafe may order her to be released. (10.) A detaining officer shall forthwith report to the Board of Trade any order made by him for the detention or release of a ship. 7. A Court of Survey for a port or district shall consist of a judge sitting with two assessors. The judge shall be such person as may be summoned for the case in accordance with the rules made under this act out of a list (s) (from time to time approved for the port or district by one of her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, in this act referred to as a secretary of state,) of wreck commissioners appointed under this act, stipendiary or metropolitan police magistrates, judges of county courts, and other fit persons; but in any special case in which the Board of Trade think it expedient to appoint a wreck commissioner, the judge shall be such wreck commissioner. The assessors shall be persons of nautical engineering or other special skill and experience; one of them shall be appointed by the Board of Trade, either generally or in each case, and the other shall be summoned in accordance with the rules under this act by the registrar of the Court, out of a list of persons periodically nominated for the purpose by the local marine board of the port, or, if there is no such board, by a body of local (r) Sect. 7. (s) See post, "Regulations for Courts of Survey." shipowners or merchants approved for the purpose by a secretary of state, or, if there is no such list, shall be appointed by the judge; if a secretary of state thinks fit at any time, on the recommendation of the government of any British possession or any foreign state, to add any person or persons to any such list, such person or persons shall, until otherwise directed by the secretary of state, be added to such list, and if there is no such list shall form such list. The county court registrar or such other fit person as a secretary of state may from time to time appoint shall be the registrar of the Court, and shall, on receiving notice of an appeal or a reference from the Board of Trade, immediately summon the Court in the prescribed manner to meet forthwith. The name of the registrar and his office, together with the rules made under this act relating to the Court of Survey, shall be published in the prescribed manner. 8. With respect to the Court of Survey the following provisions shall Power and have effect: (1.) The case shall be heard in open Court; (4.) The judge shall have the same power as the Board of Trade have (5.) The owner and master of the ship and any person appointed by the owner or master, and also any person appointed by the Board of Trade, may attend at any inspection or survey made in pursuance of this section; (6.) The judge shall send to the Board of Trade the prescribed report, and each assessor shall either sign the report or report to the Board of Trade the reasons for his dissent. 9. The Lord Chancellor of Great Britain may from time to time (with the consent of the Treasury so far as relates to fees) make, and when made revoke, alter, and add to general rules to carry into effect the provisions of this act with respect to a Court of Survey, and in particular with respect to the summoning of and procedure before the Court, the requiring on an appeal security for costs and damages, the amount and application of fees, and the publication of the rules. All such rules while in force shall have effect as if enacted in this act, and the expression "prescribed" in the provisions of this act relating to the detention of ships or Court of Survey means prescribed by such rules (u). 10. If it appears that there was not reasonable and probable cause, by reason of the condition of the ship or the act or default of the owner, for the provisional detention of the ship, the Board of Trade shall be liable to pay to the owner of the ship his costs of and incidental to the detention and survey of the ship, and also compensation for any loss or damage sustained by him by reason of the detention or survey. If a ship is finally detained under this act, or if it appears that a ship provisionally detained was, at the time of such detention, unsafe within the meaning of this act, the owner of the ship shall be liable to pay to the (t) See the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 15. (u) See post, "Regulations for Courts of Survey." procedure of Court of Survey. Rules for procedure of Court of Sur vey, &c. Liability of Board of Trade and shipowner for damages. costs and |