5372. Is the harbour-master an officer of the court?—No. Agents we have none. There is no storekeeper; the marshal lands the goods, and under some peculiar circumstances, where they have to be held over for sale, they may be stored, but I think such a thing has hardly occurred in my time.
5373. Canoe-hirers, who are those?—There are canoes employed to land the cargo.
5374. That is a duty which must be discharged and paid for at the ordinary rate in the colony?—Yes.
5375. “Victuallers of captured ships’ crews,” who are those?—We have no such men; the marshal victuals the ship’s crew at the regular rate laid down, 3s. for the officers and 2s. for the men; there are generally only three persons in each case thus provided for.
5376. Is that any thing beyond the absolute expense necessary for the object?—You cannot in a colony where food is so dear lodge and feed an European in a respectable line of life for less than 3s. a day.
5377. Mr. W. Patten.] Would you recommend the uniting of any of those offices together?—The only three officers we have are the marshal, the surveyor, and the commissioner of appraisement and sale, who is not mentioned here, and their offices cannot be united.
5378. Chairman.] Dr. Madden recommended that “the effects of the captured vessel, prior to adjudication should remain in them under the charge of the captors”?—They always do remain in the vessel; Dr. Madden mentions this as a change that ought to take place, but nobody ever thought of landing a vessel’s goods before condemnation, because if the vessel is restored she goes out with all the goods in her. He then says, “On condemnation they should be delivered over by the captors to the collector of the customs, and this part of his service be included in the remuneration of his general duties.” The court could have no control over the collector of the customs, and how he would perform the duty more cheaply than the marshal I do not know; those goods must be landed under the control of the court, and kept under the control of the court till they are sold.
5379. What are the charges on the sale which are alluded to?—The custom-house duties and the auction duty, and those already mentioned.
5380. The custom-house duties are the duties which you alluded to as having been subsequently reduced?—Yes.
5381. Which did press upon the goods in proportion to their quality?—Yes; Dr. Madden says in the last sentence, “I beg to be understood as not meaning to attribute, in the slightest degree, to these gentlemen the disadvantages of the system that is adopted for the disposal of the effects of the condemned vessel. This system has grown up to its present amount of abuse, I believe, without their sanction, and I should think, from what I have seen of these gentlemen, it exists without their approval.” It does not; if there had been any abuse I should have been responsible for it, of course, during the time that I was there; but I believe no abuse whatever existed which the court could control. In the case of translations, we had no translator till we applied to the Government, and indeed the necessity did not arise till lately, because when you could only capture vessels full of slaves, you did not require any translations; I believe there is no abuse whatever, and it certainly is not without the sanction of the court, if it exists.