5. The said steamship loaded at Cardiff and delivered at Bermuda 2,367 tons of cargo.

6. Adopting the estimate of the said Charterers the time for discharging commenced on Monday, July 15th, 1901.

7. At the stipulated average rate of not less than 210 tons per working day, the time for discharging was 11 days and 6 hours, or 114 days, and not 12 days as is contended by the Charterers.

8. The discharge was not in fact finished until 3 p.m. on Monday, July 29th, making 13 days 15 hours of time to count.

9. The Charterers have admitted and paid your Petitioner in respect of 1 day and 15 hours demurrage, but there is still due and owing to your Petitioner the sum of £15:58. Od. in respect of the further period of 18 hours or of a day, during which the said steamship was on demurrage.

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays for payment of the said sum of £15: 58. Od.

Dated the 10th day of July, 1902.

(Signed)

Counsel for the Petitioner.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.

King's Bench Division.

In the Matter of the Petition of Right of Francis Yeoman.

DEMURRER, ANSWER AND PLEA

To the said Petition by His Majesty's Attorney-General for and on behalf of Our Lord the King delivered the 19th day of December 1902 by the Treasury Solicitor 276 Royal Courts of Justice in the County of London.

DEMURRER.

Sir Robert Bannatyne Finlay Knight His Majesty's Attorney-General on behalf of Our Lord the King gives the Court here to understand and be informed that the Petition of Right is bad in substance and in law on the ground that the allegations of fact contained in paragraphs 3 and 5 of the said Petition do not disclose any right in the Petitioner to recover the sum of £15: 58. or any other sum for demurrage.

ANSWER AND PLEA.

And Sir Robert Bannatyne Finlay Knight His Majesty's Attorney-General on behalf of Our Lord the King gives the Court here to understand and be informed as follows:

1. By a Charter Party dated June 6th 1901 and made between the Petitioner and the Director of Transports for and on behalf of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty thereinafter called the Charterers it was mutually agreed that in consideration of freight to be paid by the said Charterers as therein provided the steamship "Haslingden" should proceed to Cardiff and there load a cargo of patent fuel and being so loaded proceed to Bermuda and deliver the same.

2. It was a term of the said Charter Party that the said cargo should be discharged at the average rate of not less than two hundred and ten tons per working day. The clause providing for rate of discharge contained no reference to fractions of a working day.

3. It was also a term of the said Charter Party that demurrage should be paid at the rate of fourpence per net register ton per day and pro rata employed beyond the time allowed for discharging. The clause dealing with demurrage thus provided for proportionate payment for fractions of a day.

4. The first working day for discharging the said cargo was Monday July 15th 1901. The amount of the said cargo was 2367 tons and the last lay day was Saturday July 27th. The discharging was completed at 3 p.m. on Monday July 29th.

5. In accordance with the terms of the said Charter Party the said Charterers have paid to the Petitioner demurrage at the rate of fourpence per net register ton per day and pro rata employed beyond the time allowed for discharging viz. demurrage in respect of the time commencing at midnight on Saturday July 27th and ending at 3 p.m. on Monday July 29th 1901 that is to say 1 day and 15 hours and there is no further sum due and owing to the Petitioner as alleged or at all.

6. The Attorney-General further gives the Court here to understand and be informed that save as aforesaid the several allegations contained in the said Petition are untrue in substance and in fact.

(Signed by the Junior Counsel to the Admiralty.) Yeoman v. R., [1904] 2 K. B. 429; 73 L. J. K. B. 904.

Pleadings on a Petition of Right claiming the Repayment of Light Dues.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
Queen's Bench Division.

Victoria R. "Let Right be Done."

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

The humble Petition of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company, of 122, Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, by
William Dawes Freshfield, of New Bank Buildings, 31, Old Jewry,
in the City of London, their Attorney,

Sheweth

1. That the Petitioners [should be "Suppliants"] are a Corporation owning ships trading between England and India, China and Australia, respectively, and have for many years employed to navigate their steamers a class of British subjects, natives of India, known as Lascars.

2. Such Lascars have been shipped for many years in British India under Agreements in the form and with the provisions approved by the GovernorGeneral of India in Council.

3. For many years the crew space provided for such Lascars has largely exceeded the crew space required to be provided for Lascars by the Indian Act of 1876 (1876, No. 13, Section 9), in cases to which that section is applicable, but has fallen short of the crew space required to be provided for seamen by Section 210 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, in cases to which that section is applicable.

4. During the above time the measurement of the crew space occupied by such Lascars has usually been deducted from the measurement of the tonnage of Your Petitioners' ships, with the consequence that light dues and other dues payable on such tonnage have not been paid in respect of such crew space.

5. The "Australia" is one of Your Petitioners' ships trading between England and Australia, and carrying a crew of Lascars, accommodated as stated in paragraph 3 hereof and shipped under an Agreement as stated in paragraph 2 hereof.

6. The "Oriental" is one of Your Petitioners' ships trading between England and India, carrying a similar crew to that on the "Australia."

7. A Surveyor of Ships appointed by the Board of Trade has inspected the crew space occupied by the Lascars in the "Australia " and in the "Oriental,” and alleging that the provisions of section 210 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, have not been complied with has reported such failure to the appropriate Chief Officer of Customs, who thereupon has altered the registered tonnage of the said ships, respectively, and disallowed the deduction of the said crew spaces from the said tonnages, respectively. Your Petitioners admit that if Lascars are seamen within the meaning of that word in section 210 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, the space required by that section has not been provided for such seamen.

8. Your Petitioners humbly submit that in taking such action the said Surveyor acted on an erroneous construction of the Statutes applicable to such Lascars and their crew space and the registered tonnage of the said ships, and wrongly considered that the English Acts and not the Indian Acts regulated the crew space to be provided for Lascars.

9. If the view adopted by such Surveyor is correct Your Petitioners must either reduce the number of Lascars carried by their ships or must give up part of their present freight-earning space for the accommodation of the present number of Lascars. In consequence of such action of the said Surveyor, Your Petitioners also have been compelled to pay larger dues on an increased tonnage of the said vessels, and in particular have been compelled to pay larger light dues to Your Majesty's General Lighthouse Fund, in that they have now to pay such dues on the tonnage measurement of the said crew space.

Your Suppliants therefore humbly pray :—

1. For a declaration that the said Lascars on the "Australia" and "Oriental," respectively, are lawfully shipped and carried by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company under the Agreements referred to in paragraph 2 hereof.

2. For a declaration that the crew space provided for such Lascars complies with the Statutes in that behalf if it exceeds the crew space required by section 9 of the Indian Act, 1876, No. 13.

3. For a declaration that Lascars are not "seamen within the true meaning of that term in section 210 of the Merchant Shipping Act,

1894.

4. For a declaration that the said Surveyor of Ships was not justified by the provisions of the Statutes in that behalf applicable in causing the deduction of the crew spaces occupied by Lascars in the "Australia" and "Oriental," respectively, from their registered tonnage to be disallowed, on the ground that such crew spaces, respectively, did not comply with the provisions of section 210 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

5. For a repayment of any extra sums paid by Your Petitioners to Your Majesty's General Lighthouse Fund in respect of the "Australia" and "Oriental" respectively, in consequence of the above disallowance of the deduction of the crew space from the registered tonnage.

Dated the 4th day of August, 1900.

(Signed)

Counsel for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company.

The Suppliants propose that this Petition should be tried in the County of Middlesex.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.

King's Bench Division.

In the Matter of the Petition of Right of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

DEMURRER, ANSWER AND PLEA

To the said Petition by His Majesty's Attorney-General for and on behalf of our Lord the King, delivered this 7th day of May, 1901, by the Solicitor to the Board of Trade.

DEMURRER.

Sir Robert Bannatyne Finlay, Knight, His Majesty's Attorney-General, on behalf of our Lord the King, gives the Court here to understand and be informed that the Petition of Right is bad in substance and in law on the ground that the said Petition does not show that the light dues paid by the Suppliants in respect of the "Australia" and "Oriental" therein mentioned were unlawfully levied by the General Lighthouse Authorities or unlawfully paid into the General Lighthouse Fund, and on other grounds sufficient in law to sustain this Demurrer.

ANSWER AND PLEA.

And Sir Robert Bannatyne Finlay, Knight, His Majesty's Attorney-General, on behalf of our Lord the King, gives the Court here to understand and be informed as follows:

1. The Suppliants are owners of ships trading between England and Australia and India, including the "Australia" trading between England and Australia, and the "Oriental" trading between England and India, referred to in the Petition.

The crews of such ships are composed of European seamen, apprentices, and native seamen (Lascars).

The agreements with such native seamen are entered into in British India. The Attorney-General will refer the Court to section 125 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, and the unrepealed provisions of 4 Geo. IV. c. 80 relating to agreements with Lascars.

2. Both the said ships were registered in the United Kingdom previous to the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, in accordance with the provisions

The

of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same. tonnage and register tonnage of the said ships were ascertained and the number denoting their registered tonnage respectively cut in on their main beams also in accordance with the provisions of the said Act.

All such provisions were re-enacted by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. For convenience the more important of the re-enacted provisions are hereinafter set out instead of those of the earlier Acts.

3. The questions raised by the Petition relate-

(a) To the places or spaces occupied by Lascars and appropriated to their use in the said ships.

(b) To the deductions allowed off their tonnage in respect of such spaces in ascertaining their register tonnage upon which register tonnage light dues leviable by the General Lighthouse Authorities and carried to the credit of the General Lighthouse Fund are paid by the Suppliants.

4. Upon the first of these questions the Attorney-General refers the Court to the following provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. [Provisions set out.]

5. Upon the second question the Attorney-General refers the Court to the following provisions of the said Act. [Provisions set out.]

6. As regards the "Australia" and "Oriental," the surveyors of ships followed the directions of the earlier Acts corresponding to those of the sections and schedule above set out in ascertaining previous to their registration their tonnage and register tonnage respectively. In particular as regards each space in the ship occupied by seamen or apprentices and appropriated to their use, the number of men which it was constructed to accommodate was certified and recorded by them as provided by the sixth schedule. The surveyors arrived at the certified number by assuming for each seaman or apprentice a space of not less than 72 cubic feet and of not less than 12 superficial feet measured upon the deck or floor of the particular space as directed by section 210 irrespective of whether the seamen or apprentices to occupy such space were Europeans or Lascars.

7. In the Suppliants' ships separate spaces are appropriated to the use of the Lascar portion of their crews. For many years past the surveyors of ships, when it has been brought to their notice that any of such spaces are occupied by a greater number of Lascars than the number of seamen certified in respect thereof, have put in force the provisions of Clause (5) of the said Sixth Schedule. The deduction off the tonnage in respect of such spaces has been disallowed and the registered tonnage altered and increased accordingly.

8. In particular, as regards both the "Australia" and "Oriental," it was found that the spaces appropriated to the use of Lascars on these ships were occupied by a greater number of Lascars than the number of seamen certificated in respect thereof. The deductions off their tonnages in respect of such spaces were accordingly disallowed and their registered tonnages altered and increased accordingly.

9. By reason of the registered tonnage of the "Australia" and "Oriental" having been thus increased, larger light dues have been levied by the General Lighthouse Authorities and paid by the Suppliants in respect of both vessels and carried to the General Lighthouse Fund.