Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7734, 9 February 1905, Page 4

Commenting on the Sea Carria.g< lof Goods Act recently passed i )v t,hi (Commonwealth Government, the Lon,don Shipping World savs :—" Tlu •goods which arise in, Amerioa are U Ao settled by American law,, ami in |Anterica, any excepting clauses on | the tails of landing notwithstanding | • Any covenant having the effect oi *-dmg the Courts of the Com ... .ealth is made illegal ' add|Keutcr. One would hardly like U ~iy that K should he made impos We to contract, out of a country .as to the conditions of delivery ir that country; hut in a broad sens, | the principle of the Ilurtcr Act thai , Claims arising in a country shouk (be settled by the laws of that conn |trj- ( is surely common sense. Am particularly the case Jn general car- | go bills of lading, which, as wi I have always insisted, are not freigh! contracts at all, but only titles u | the goods'. It 'is impos seems aibsui'd, to suppose ....... ~ni|er |er shippers or consignees have knowtledge of, or are bound by, anything and everything that may be printed m a bill of lading, made out prob*Wy by quite another party. They have no say in the matter. .In llu case of Australia, no doubt thy action of the Federal Legislature is chiefly aimed at the NorddeutsciK'iLloyd's, whose bills of lading have '«. clause that all claims against fthem .should be made in Germany. It /is really unreasonable altogether to try to force a man, stiv, in Melbourne, who may have goo.ls shoit■deJivered there, and whose till of lading is made out and sent to him by the N.DX. itself, to sue that company according to German law in a German court. The whole origin and reason for su:h claims .vises in the country of destination-, and it should be difficult lo submit them to foreign laws, even when such Jaws arc m tmiitiJHmzv with justice."