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district. Of this, from actual inspection, I have no doubt, and the cause is
simply the disturbance of the shipping trade in the Port, owing to the
unhappy relations between labour and capital.
Practically all the canal boats coming into our district carry cargo to and
from vessels, and any decrease of the shipping industry will naturally be
reflected in the canal boat industry, another proof of the far reaching effects
of these unfortunate differences, many of which we scarcely realize at present,
but which undoubtedly have a wide and lasting influence for evil upon the
commerce of the country.
On these 557 boats, registered in the aggregate for 1,667 persons, only 1,284
were actually living. Thus in the eye of the law there is practically no overcrowding
in these boats, although many of them carry a complement which
certainly is the utmost possible consistent with health and decency.
This disparity of numbers is, as I have previously pointed out, mainly due
to the fact that some registration authorities licence for the full number of
persons who can be carried, as calculated by the cubic capacity of the cabin
without any reference to the legal requirements as to proper sleeping
accommodation.
As an instance of this a boat has been recently inspected which, while
registered for 17 persons, provided proper accommodation for four or five only.
This particular boat could legally have carried in the after cabin a man,
wife and 14 children, and in the fore cabin a man, wife and 12 children, in all,
four adults and 26 children ! Happily, however, she carried only three adults
and three children, for whom there was ample space.
Thirteen cases have occurred of boats travelling while unregistered under
the Acts, and all these have since been registered under this or some other
Authority.
Six cases of over-crowding were met with. Five of these were satisfactorily
explained and remedied. In two of these the over-crowding was caused by a
young child, which was removed from the boat at the first opportunity.
In a fourth, the master of the boat was in an advanced stage of consumption,
and had taken on help for work which he was obviously unable to perform, while
the fourth was a case where the master of the boat having been taken suddenly
ill was left behind, and the new hand brought his wife on the trip with him.
The sixth case was that of the "George," of Warwick, No. 66, which being
registered for a man, wife and three children, was found to have on board a
man, wife and five children.
The master having refused to remedy the over-crowding, a summons was
applied for, and on hearing, he was fined 10s., and 2s. costs.