So that under this absurd system of per-centages, a paddle steamer with an engine-room of twenty-one tons will get an allowance of seven per cent. more than a similar steamer with an engine-room of twenty tons, and a screw steamer with an engineroom of fourteen tons will get an allowance of ten and a quarter per cent. more than a similar steamer with an engine-room of thirteen tons. One ton either way makes this large difference in the amount of deduction. And steamers may really have no tonnage at all on which dues can be charged, indeed, this is actually the case in some steam ships at the present moment. Not only is this so, but with the excessive deductions for crew spaces, as already explained, several steamers have not only no tonnage, but have absolutely a minus quantity.

We have only now to take a few actual cases of deductions from all sources, viz., crew spaces, engine-room allowance, and exemptions of covered-in spaces, to shew how unequal and unfair is the result of these deductions. The ships laden with cotton passing through the Suez Canal afford a fair illustration. About five and one-third bales go to a ton. It follows from a perusal of the following short list, either that the sailing ships and some steam ships are overcharged by Messrs. De Lesseps and Co. and other Dock and Harbour Owners, or that Messrs. De Lesseps and Co. are not properly paid by the owners of the other ships.

The steamers A and B are both fitted with a covered space available for cargo between the poop and forecastle, but not included in the gross measurement. It will be seen how exceedingly unfair is the operation of the present law, not only as between some

steam ships and some sailing ships, but as between steam ship and steam ship, for whilst some steamers carry an enormous excess over sailing ships of like net register tonnage, the law so operates that other steamers cannot carry so much as a sailing ship of the like net register tonnage.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

Gross Register Tonnage.-We have seen that the rule for calculating this tonnage is sound in principle, but that it has been injuriously departed from in the case of closed-in spaces available for cargo, on or under the upper deck. We have also seen that exemption from measurement has led to anomalies, inconvenience, and gross injustice.

Net Register Tonnage.-We have seen that this may be nil.

Spar Decks.-We have seen that spaces under these decks which are required by law to be measured are sometimes exempted. We have also seen that they may be an element of safety in some cases, and an element of danger in other cases.

Closed-in Spaces on Deck.-The same remarks apply.

Crew Spaces. If the deduction is to be continued, some limitation is necessary, without interfering with the manning of ships.

Engine-room Spaces.-We have seen how absurd, unequal, and unjust is the present law; some rule must be adopted, doing away with the deduction altogether, or, if this is impossible, limiting it to, say, fifty per cent. of the gross tonnage. If the deduction is to be continued, the actual measurement of the space set apart for and used by engines, boilers, and coals would, subject to the limitation of fifty per cent., probably be the fairest rule. It would give an allowance for the actual space used for the propelling power; and if Mr. Gilmour's view is right, that no deduction should be given at all, how difficult must the steamboat owner find it to give a good or honest reason why the deduction should exceed the space actually used and required for propelling purposes, or to give any reason, good or bad, why it should absorb the whole, or nearly the whole, of the tonnage on which dues and rates are paid.

Tonnage Dues.-As regards shifting these dues from the net to the gross register, such a plan is impossible so long as the dock authorities adhere to their present unfair plan of charging as much for a day or two as for a month, a plan that bears unduly on vessels making frequent visits or remaining but a short time. It has been admitted on all hands that the gross register tonnage, with an allowance for time, would give the fairest standard for charging

tonnage dues or wharfage and dock rates. Some permissive powers enabling dock authorities to do this, might perhaps be introduced into the new bill with advantage. The Act of 1863 contained a clause to the effect that "any body corporate or persons having power to levy tonnage rates on ships, may, with the consent of the Board of Trade, levy such tonnage rates upon the registered tonnage of the ships as determined by the rules for the measurement of tonnage for the time being in force under the principal Act, notwithstanding that the local Act or Acts under which such rates are levied provides for levying the same upon some different system of tonnage measurement."

It is possible that if the new bill were to contain a permissive clause applicable to gross tonnage somewhat similar, something might be eventually effected. But the whole question is beset with difficulties and with points that cannot as yet be specifically dealt with by Parliament. The writer of these remarks merely throws out the above hint for consideration, in hopes that it may lead to some suggestion of value.

There is, perhaps, another way of settling the difficulty. If the steam shipping interest will not now give up the deduction allowed for engine-room space, but should again succeed in obtaining legislative authority for its continuance, then the sailing ship interest will probably, on what they believe to be equitable grounds, also claim further exemptions. Seeing that it will, in such a state of things, be impossible to return to the true tonnage-viz., the gross register tonnage of steam ships as the tonnage for taxation, the question then is, might not the true tonnage both for sailing and steam ships be reduced alike. What is really wanted to bring about an equitable arrangement, is to bring the tonnage of all ships back from the net to the whole true tonnage, so that the whole tonnage of each ship shall afford a safe figure for taxation; but if it be impossible to revert to the whole true tonnage in the case of steam ships, why should not the desired result be attained by a reduction in the true tonnage of sailing ships equal in amount to the reduction from the true tonnage of steam ships. The tonnage of all ships would then be alike; but instead of all being alike as regards gross register or true tonnage, they would all be alike as regards another tonnage, viz., the net register tonnage, which would be half the true tonnage in all cases.

Suppose, for example, that if every steam ship be hereafter allowed fifty per cent. as a deduction from her tonnage, then let every sailing ship have a deduction of a like amount. Dock owners would alter their rates quickly, and would probably find an equit

able method for alteration. As regards returns of trade and navigation, seeing that the two tonnages of a ship and all the deductions are recorded in the official registers, the tonnage returns and other statistics could be so arranged, whenever necessary, that they could continue to give information on the present basis, and without making any violent change, and without shewing any decrease in the actual tonnage of the Empire. In making any change all interests would have to be considered, so that the holders of shares in the docks, the owners of steam ships, and the owners of sailing ships may participate equitably.

International Tonnage.-Most maritime countries and states have adopted the principles of the British system of measurements for gross tonnage, but they hesitate to adopt a system of net register tonnage open to such inconsistencies and capable of inflicting such injustice as the British system. In settling the future system of British net register tonnage, the question must be treated on broad and intelligible grounds, in the hope that a system may be devised that can and will be adopted by the whole world.

Administration of Tonnage Laws.-This paper would scarcely be complete, without some reference to existing arrangements for the survey of ships for tonnage and other purposes. At the present moment, no less than three departments have a staff of surveyors of ships. The Emigration Board for Passenger Ships; The Board of Trade for Passenger Steam ships, and for the crew spaces, and lights, and fog-signals of all ships; and the Board of Customs for the measurement previous to registry of all ships. The shipowner reasonably complains of this state of things, for it sometimes happens that the action of the Board of Trade and Board of Customs, as regards tonnage, unexpectedly brings the ship into a different class as regards the Emigration Board, and requires the engagement of extra hands for whom, the shipowner says, he can find no employment. The nomenclature of decks should also be re-settled. All sorts of new names have come into existence, such as awning decks, weather decks, promenade decks, hurricane decks, covering decks, etc., often used without distinction for the same thing. There are also the main deck, the spar deck, the tonnage deck, and the upper and lower passenger decks, and sometimes the orlop deck. The present tonnage law only calls two decks by name, viz., the tonnage deck, and the spar deck. And as under the tonnage law the spar deck is always the third deck from below, it sometimes has a deck and deck-houses above it. It is not always as is supposed, the uppermost deck. Perhaps the best way would be to number all decks from below upwards, as in the present tonnage

law, and to call them the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth decks, as the case may be. These are easy matters, and will no doubt be satisfactorily settled when the New Bill is under discussion in Parliament. We now dismiss the subject of tonnage admeasurement, in the hope that what we have written may be of some use at the present moment. In our next number we propose to consider the question of manning. In doing so we propose to touch on the compulsory apprenticeship system, the register ticket, foreign seamen in British ships, and the training of boys before entry into the merchant service.

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AT SOUTER POINT.

WE are glad to welcome the appearance of another brilliant luminary on our seaboard. Souter Point, on the coast of Durham, between the entrances of the rivers Wear and Tyne, has recently had a bright star bound on its brow. It will be remembered by many of our readers that a few years back considerable agitation was caused by vague reports of misleading lights at Whitburn, and numerous wrecks in the immediate neighbourhood of Souter Point. A strict investigation, however, dispelled the misleading lights theory, corroborated the reports as to the numerous wrecks, and brought to public notice sundry lurking dangers, which threatened mariners on that particular part of the coast, and which were, no doubt, the real causes of the many disasters which had occurred.

The Trinity House, therefore, after much consideration as to the best mode of indicating these dangers to navigators, determined to place a lighthouse on Souter Point, and to discontinue that at Tynemouth Castle. But we understand that some of our north country friends were not altogether favourable to the disestablishment of their old friend the Castle Yard Light, which had done good service for more than 240 years, and that, in deference to this feeling, the original intention of the Trinity House has not been carried out, the Tynemouth light being merely altered from a white revolving to a red revolving light.

And we must confess our satisfaction at this arrangement, not only for the sake of "Auld Lang Syne," but because navigation is so much benefited by it. While the old light is kept up to guide