View report page

54
control consequent on registration. Moreover, there appears to be in the
minds of many owners, and especially masters, a sentimental objection to the
term "Canal Boats," when applied to their vessels which ply to a large
extent in salt water. There is, perhaps, some slight ground for this objection,
as the vessels in question differ largely from "Canal Boats" as generally
understood. As an obstacle to registration it is, however, occasionally raised,
and registration under the Merchant Shipping Act substituted.
To remove it, the substitution of some term such as "Inland Navigation"
in place of "Canal Boat" would probably be sufficient.
As before mentioned, when registered under the Merchant Shipping Act,
the owners and occupiers enjoy greater latitude of behaviour inasmuch as the
Port Sanitary Authority can only interfere in case of an actual or suspected
nuisance, or in case of infectious disease, in the exercise of their powers under
the Public Health Act.
I would, however, strongly urge that many of the evils, social and physical,
which the Canal Boats Acts were introduced to minimise and abolish on the
canal systems of the Kingdom, obtain, though perhaps to a less extent, on
these sailing barges. I have stated that both children and women are
frequently carried. The former are usually below school age, or if not, are
carried during their holidays. The barges are neither safe nor desirable
places for the accommodation of the young of either sex. With regard to
women, frequently the adult female found on board is the wife of the master
or the mate. When this is so, she will often, as in the case of canal boats
share the duties on board whether in the galley or at the helm. Her presence
is known probably to the owner of the vessel, and no difficulty would be met
with as regards registration to meet cases of this kind. On the other hand,
the presence of females is not always of so regular a character. Complaints
are occasionally made of gross disorderly proceedings on barges. There is
as a rule no case for the police, and obviously none for the Sanitary Authority;
but were these vessels compelled to be registered under the Canal Boats Acts,
proceedings could at once be taken against the master and also the owner
where the vessel was not properly fitted and registered for occupation by an
adult female, being the wife of one of the male occupants of the same vessel. The
Canal Boats Acts are stringent, necessarily and properly so, with regard to
this class of offence, and with some modification to meet the important
sanitary questions of effectually disconnecting cargo spaces from the cabin,
lighting, warming, cleanliness, and ventilation, I am strongly of opinion, and
would urge your Worshipful Committee to move, under Sec. 10, Canal Boats
Act, 1884*, that in your opinion all vessels of whatever class or description
which trade or ply ordinarily within the limits westward of an imaginary line
drawn from Reculver Towers in the County of Kent to Colne Point in the
County of Essex, should be registered as "Canal Boats," or for "Inland
Navigation" only under the Canal Boats Acts or any Act or Acts amending