NAVIGATION COMMISSION'S REPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8063, 20 March 1906, Page 2

NAVIGATION COMMISSION'S REPORT.

PREFERENCE TO BRITISH SHIPS. I CONDITIONAL ON BRITISH CREWS AND CARGOES. DRASTIC RECOMMENDATIONS. Received l'J, 5 p.m. Syd.net, March 11), The Navigation Commission's report recommends preference to British shipowners and producers conditionally on the ships being manned by a substantial proportion of British citizens, or carrying cargoes whereof a substantial proportion is of British manufacture or origin. It suggests, as the matter affects the whole Empire, the question should receive consideraat the next Imperial Shipping Conference, together with the desirability of uniform legislation extending to seamen the advantages of the various Workmen's Compensation Acts. The Commission finds that British seamen are fast disappearing, and recommends as a remedy, numerous drastic measures and reforms, with & view to rendering the conditions moro attractive.

Theso includo 120 cubic feet of air space per man, better ventilation and lighting, hot and cold bathroom in steamships for aU hands, improved food, (certificated cooks, that seamen bo entitled to receive two-thirds of the wages earned at any part where a vessel calls, abolition of advance and allotment notes, except where made in favor of relatives, and abolition of imprisonment for desertion. Manning scales for vessels, according to tonnage, are provided for officers, engineers, seamen and firemon, and compulsory insurance for seamen.

Other recommendations arc that pilots, except possibly in the Torres Straits, become public servants, liable to the extent of £IOO for accidents due to their fault; that the Commonwealth take over quarantine, lighthouses etc.; that coastal trade be re. served for ships on the Australian register, or ships licensed as conforming to Australian conditions, mail steamers botween Adelaide and Frcmantle to be exempted from this proT ision. The report recommends the total prohibition from coastal trade of foreign subsidised ships, the establishment of an Australian Royal Naval Reserve on similar lmos to that adopted by the British Admiralty and Bjard of Trade, modified to meet local conditions, the provision of nautical scholarships at various ports, that it bo made illegal to give rebates on freights when such rebate is conditional on exclusive shipping with certain vessels-

A doetor must be carried on vessels carrying one hundred passengers or over, where the voyage exceeds live days, and more stringent inspections and surveying of vessels is required. A minority report deprei-nlc.s the stringency of the .recommendations concerning coastal trade, and believes it to be outside the province of the Commission to touch the question of '■he preferential treatment of British shippers and producers.