THE PASSENGERS' ACT. [From the "Sydney Herald," March ll.]

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 417, 13 April 1850, Page 2

THE PASSENGERS' ACT. [From the " Sydney Herald," March ll.]

The following Regulations, to be observed on board of Passenger Ships, hate been issued by the Queen in Council :— 1. All passengers who shall not be prerented by sickness, or other sufficient cause, to be determined by the surgeon, or in ships carrying no surgeon, by the mailer, shall rise not later than 7 o'clock, a.m., at which hour the flies shall be lighted. 2. It shall be the duty of the cook, appointed under the 26th section of the said " Passengers' Apt, one thousand eight hundred and foity-nine," to light the fires, sind to take care that they be kept alight during the day, and also to take cure that each passenger or family of passengers, shall bare the use of the fireplace at the proper hours, in an order to be fixed by the roaster, 3. When the passengers sire drened, their beds shall be rolled up 4. The decks, including the space under the bottom of the berths, shall be swept before breakfast, «ud all dirt thrown overboard. 5. The breakfast hour shall be from 8 to 9 o'cloak, a. m. { provided that, before the commencement of breakfast, all emigrants, except at hereinbefore ex. cepted, be out of bed and dressed, and that the beds have been rolled up, and the deck on which the emigrant* live properly swept 6f The deck shall further be swept after every meal, and, after breakfast is concluded, shall be also dry holystoned or scraped. This duty, as well as tbat of cleaning the ladders, hospitals, and round houses, shall be performed by a party taken in rotation from the adult males above fourteen, in the proportion of five to every one hundred emigrants, and who shall be considered at sweepers for the d«y. But the tingle women shall perform this duty in their own compartmeut when a separate compartment is allotted to them, and the occupant of each berth shall see tbat his own berth is well brushed out. 7. Dinner shall commence at 1 o'clock, p. m,, and supper at 6 p. m. 8. The fires shall be extinguished at 7 p. m , unless otherwise directed by the nanhter, or required for the use of the sick, and the emigrants shall be in their berths at 10 o'clock, p.m. except under the permission or authority of the surgeon; or if there be no surgeon of the master. 9. Three safety-lamps shall be lit at dusk, and kept, burning till 10 p.m., after which hour two of the lamps may be extinguished, one being nevertheless kept burning »t the main hatchway all night. I 10. No naked light shall be allowed at any time or on any account, 11. The scuttles and stem ports, if any, shall, weather permitting, be opened at 7 o'clock, a. m., md kept open till 10 o'clock, p. M., and the hitches shall be kept open whenever the weather perm iff. 12. The coppers and cooking utensils shall be cleaned every day. 13. The beds shall be well shaken and aired on deck at least twice a-week. 14. The bottom boards of tbe births, if not fixtures, (hall be removed and dry.scrubbed, and taken on deck at least twice a week. 15. A space of deck-room shall be appropriated fur ft hospital, not less, for vessels carrying one hundred passengers, than forty-eight superficial feet, with two ot four bed.births erected therein ; not less for vessels carrying two hundred or more passengers, than one hundred and twenty superficial feet, with six bed. berths therein. 16. Two days in the week shall be appointed by the master as wathiug days; but no washing or drying of clothes shall on any account be permitted between deck). 17. On Sunday mornings the passengers shall be mustered at ten o'clock a.m. and will be expected to appear in clean and decent apparel. The Lord's Day shall be observed as religiously as circumstances will admit. 18. No spirits or gunpowder shall be taken on board by any passenger : and if either of those articles be discovered in the possession of a passenger, it shall be taksn into the custody of the master during the voyage, and not returned to the passenger until he is on the point of disembarking. 19. No loose hay or straw shall be allowed below for any purpose. 20. No smoking shall be allowed between decks. 21. All gambling, fighting, riotous or quarrelsome I behaviour, swearing and violent language shall be at once put a stop to. Swords and other offensive weapons shall, as soon as the passenger embark, be placed ia tlie custody of the matter. 22. No sailors shall be allowed to remain on the passenger deck, among the passengers, ex'dept on duty. 23. No passenger shall go to the ship's cookhouse without special permission from the master, ' nor remain in tbe forecastle among the tailors ou any account. 24. In vessels not expressly required by tbe said " Passenger Act, 1849," to have on board such venti* lating apparatus as therein mentioned, such other pro. vision shall be made for ventilation as shall be required ; by tbe emigration officer, at the port of embarkation, or in bis absence by the officers of customs. 25 And to prevent all doubts in the construction of the Order ia Council, it is hereby further ordered that the terms " United Kingdom" and '! Passenger ; Ship*' shall herein have the same significations as are •••igncd w them respectively in tbe said " Passenger Act, one tnouund eight hundred and forty-nine." And the Right Honorable Earl Grey, one of' Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, is to give the necessary directions herein accordingly, Wm. L. Bathcrsx,