WARNING TO PASSENGERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 106, 19 March 1862, Page 4

WARNING TO PASSENGERS.

Numerous complaints are made by passengers who have taken out tickets for Alelbourne by vessels lying at Port Chalmers, that they are detained on board for days and even weeks after the understood time of sail, ing ; and the passengers by the " Seaman's Bride' have petitioned Air. Thomson, Emigration Officer, at the Port, to institute proceedings, so as to enforce the departure of the vessel, or restitution for the delay. It is doubtful, however, if, from the loose character of tlieir contract tickets, any action which they might bring would hold, aud it would be well that, in future, passengers should avoid this contingency by seeing that the day of sailing of the vessel by which they purpose departing is distinctly stated on tlieir contrast tickets. Ey accepting tickets upon which neither tho date of payment nor the date of sailing is stated, they leave themselves in the hands of the agents, or masters, to an extent which may may impose upon them great inconvenience and delay. The law bearing upon this matter is contained in the 4Sth and 49tli sections of the Passengers' Actof 1855, the 48th section being to this effect : —" If any person by whom or on whose behalf any contract shall have "been made for a passage in any ship proceeding on any voyage to which that Act extends, sliall be at the pl.-ice of embarkation appointed in such contract, and if from any cause whatever such passenger shall not be received in such ship, orin some other equally eligible ship, to sail within ten days from the expiration of the said day of embarltfi- ■ tion, and in tiie meantime be paid subsistence-money, such passenger or any Emigration Officer on his behalf, shall be entitled to recover all monies paid, and a further sum not exceeding LlO." The 4i»th section provides that '■' if auy ship, whether a pussenger ship or otherwise, shall not actually put to sea, and proceed on her intended voyage before three o'clock in the afternoon of the day next after the said day of embarcationthe owner, master, or agentshallpay to each passengersubsistene'emoneyat therateof ls. Od. each day, for the first ten days, and afterwards 3s. b'd. a day until the departure of the vessel." It will thus be seen that it is implied by the Act that a day of embarkation shall be stated in the contract ticket. Without this the contract ticket is not complete, and while it remains a question whether the agent is not liable under the Act, i'or giving an imperfect ticket, it would bo well in the meantime that passengers should sea to their own interests, and not blindly accept tickets, bythe incompleteness of which tbey are debarred from obtaining ready restitution. Passengers leaving Dunedin'for Coromandel should also, before securing a passage, thoroughly satisfy themselves that ample provision is made on board the vessel, by which they propose sailing, both for their food and proper accommodation. Several passengers who had shipped for Coromandel, have applied at tho Custom House, at Port Chalmers for an examination of the meat and bread, with wliich they have been supplied, but, as vessels proceeding to Coromandel come under the designation of coasting vessels, they do not come directly under the supervision ofthe Emigration Officer, and there are not the same facilities as in the case of other vessels, for securing the provision of a suflicient supply of food, water and other necessaries for a voyage.