Passage broker’s bond, 200l.
5 lbs. of potatoes may be substituted for 1 lb. of oatmeal or rice; and in ships sailing from Liverpool, or from Irish or Scotch ports, oatmeal may be substituted in equal quantities for the whole or any part of the issues of rice. The Emigration Commissioners, with the authority of the Secretary of State, may substitute other articles of food. The regulations for preserving order, cleanliness, and ventilation were made applicable to all British ships proceeding to any of the British possessions abroad, and not confined, as formerly, to those proceeding to North America. Parties acting as passage-brokers in respect of passages to North America were required, for the first time, to give bond to the Crown in the sum of 200l., for the due observance of such requirements of the Act as relate to their proceedings. And the right of emigrant runners to recover from any emigrant, broker, or other person, any reward for services in the way of information or assistance, was taken away, unless such runner was acting under the written authority, as the agent or servant of the licensed passage-broker.
14 Vict. c. 1; 1851.
Bond from masters of foreign ships.
By an Act, 14 Vict. cap. 1, the Consolidated Act of 1849 was amended, so as to enable the Emigration Commissioners to fix a different length of voyage for steam-and sailing-vessels, and to allow the use of an alternative diet scale in all passenger ships. Vessels putting back into any port in a damaged state were prohibited from putting to sea again until effectually repaired. And bond is required to be given by masters of foreign ships carrying passengers to the British possessions abroad, that they will submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the colonial courts in the same manner as if they were British subjects.
15 & 16 Vict. c. 44; 30 June, 1852.
Shipwrecked passengers may be forwarded by public officers at the expense of the shipowner, &c.
Emigrant runners.
By an Act passed in June, 1852, the two previous Acts of 1849 and 1851 were repealed, but their provisions were re-enacted in a consolidated and amended form, with some alterations and additions. The following are the main differences introduced by the Act of 1852: It empowered the Emigration Commissioners to sue and be sued, by their secretary or one of themselves, and exempted them from personal liability in respect of all acts done in their official capacity. It forfeited “passenger ships” putting to sea without obtaining a clearing certificate from an emigration officer; it required ships taking additional passengers at outports to obtain a fresh clearance from the emigration officer; it punished, by fine or imprisonment, stowaways and their abettors; it required the survey of ships to be undertaken by two (instead of one, as in the previous Act) or more surveyors, and provided for an appeal against their decision; it required that single men should be berthed in a separate compartment in the fore-part of the ship; it provided for hospital accommodation and privies; it extended the boat scale, and required night-signals and fire-engines to be carried; it added to the articles expressly prohibited as cargo—horses, cattle, and lucifer-matches—and prohibited the carriage of cargo on passenger decks, unless stowed so as not to interfere with light and ventilation or the comfort of the emigrants. It fixed different lengths of voyage for steam- and sailing-vessels, and increased, from seventy to eighty days, the length of voyage to North America for ships sailing between the middle of October and the middle of January; in other respects, the prescribed length of voyage remained substantially the same as in the Act of 1852. It required that the provisions of the crew should not be inferior to those of the passengers, and empowered the emigration officers to reject bad provisions. The dietary scale (with the exception of substituting a small allowance of salt for molasses) was the same as in the Act of 1849, but a greater variety of articles was allowed to be substituted for oatmeal, rice, and potatoes. It required the provisions to be issued in a cooked state, and daily instead of twice a-week, as in the Act of 1849. It provided for the appointment of passengers’ stewards, and interpreters when required, and for the medical inspection of the crew as well as of the passengers. It extended, from forty-eight hours to ten days, the time within which a Shipowner may forward passengers who had not obtained passages in the ships for which they contracted. It required masters of ships putting back for the purpose of repairing damages, to maintain the passengers, or pay them subsistence money, until the ship is ready for sea or they are provided with passages in some other eligible ship. It further empowered the Secretary of State, Governor of a Colony, or British Consul, to defray the expenses of rescuing, and—if the master fails to do so—forwarding shipwrecked passengers, and constitutes such expenses a debt to the Crown, to be recovered from the owner, charterer, or master of the ship. The prohibition against acting as a passage-broker without a licence, which was formerly restricted to passages to North America, was now extended to passages to any place out of Europe, not being in the Mediterranean; and the amount of the passage-broker’s annual bond was increased from 200l. to 500l. It empowered trustees of docks to pass bye-laws for regulating the landing and embarking of emigrants, and for licensing emigrant runners—who were for the first time brought under legal control by being compelled to take out an annual licence, and to wear a badge.
18 & 19 Vict. c. 119; 14 Aug. 1855.