Second: Lighthouses Transferred or Purchased under the said Act of Parliament. Charges of Surplus. Net Revenue. Deficiency. s. d. £ a. d. £ a. d. £ 8. d. 3. d. d. Balance remaining on account of the purchase or Compensation for loss paid for the year 1819, to the collectors of duties, pursuant to the 29th sect. of act 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 79 Interest on money produced by the sale of stock, on money advanced by the bank, and on bonds, to 31 December, 1819 Property and income tax assessed on the corporation for the year ending 5 April, 1849, on this revenue Advertisements and charges respecting repayment of some of the bonds, and further charges connected with the investment of the purchase-money per the Skerries Light LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHT-VESSELS. REPORT OF ALTERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE YEAR 1849. During the year 1849, the new establishments undermentioned were, in compliance with the general desire and solicitation of the Trade, provided and brought into operation, viz.: — Two lights for the navigation of Sea Reach (River Thames), one thereof shown from a vessel moored off the Chapman Head, the other from a temporary building close to the land side of the sea wall at Mucking Flat. These lights were exhibited on the evening of the 1st of October 1849. They are fixed bright lights; but at the latter, in the direction of the Ovens Shoal, the light is coloured red. Both will hereafter be transferred to permanent pile structures, which are in course of erection. At the St. Catherine's Point Lighthouse, in the Isle of Wight, the dioptric light apparatus was much improved, and the power of the light increased by the substitution of zones of prisms in lieu of the concave mirrors previously in use. In the lantern of the lighthouse on the Maplin Sand, off the coast of Essex, a white light was opened for the purpose of further facilitating the navigation, ranging over 8° of the circle, and striking the Girdler Light in the direction of S. W. and the Shivering Sand Buoy S. by W. W. by compass. BEACONS. A conical iron beacon, surmounted by a staff and globe, was erected on the Woolpack Rock, off the south-west side of St. Mary's Island, Scilly. A spiral buoy, of large dimensions, surmounted by a staff and beacon, was moored at each of the under-mentioned stations, viz. : At the Long Sand Head. At the south end of the Kentish Knock Sand. At the south end of the Scroby Sand. At the Ovens Shoal off Coal House Point, River Thames. At the north-east Spit of Margate Sand. Trinity House, London,} 26th July, 1851. J. HERBERT, (E. E.) Secretary. ACCOUNT of the Receipt and Appropriation of the Pilot's Fund of the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, established by the Act 48 Geo. 3. cap. 104., and continued by the Acts 52 Geo. 3. cap. 39. and 6 Geo. 4. cap. 125., distinguishing the several Sources of Income and Heads of Expenditure, in the Year ending 31st December 1850.- (Presented in pursuance of the 52nd section of the last recited Act.) INCOME-1850. One year's dividends on 55,9931. 5s. 6d. capital, 34 per cent. re- Value of one House, transferred to the Corporation's general Amount of dues received in the year 1850, under the Act Amount of surplus rates of pilotage, received in London in the year ending 31st December 1850, from ships not having British registers, nor being privileged, by any Act or Convention or Order in Council, to be charged with the British rates only £ S. d. £ s. d. 1,819 15 7 500 0 0 712 15 1 2,214 8 4 271 3 7 33 1 10 Amount of ditto, received at the outports in the same period, Amount of ditto received on the issue of certificates under the Act 12 & 13 Vict. c. 88. (ordered by the Board to be carried to this account) Amount of fines received 116 0 10 13 13 0 660 5,687 14 3 166 0 2 Salary to the Superintendent of Pilots at Gravesend 30 0 0 Commission on the amount of surplus rates of pilotage collected at the outports Out pensions to superannuated pilots, their wives, widows, and children and occasional relief to ditto, in the year ending 31st December 1850; including the amount of commission paid for distributing their pensions to persons resident at the outports Pensions and allowances to superannuated pilots, their wives or widows, inhabiting 13 almshouses, in the year ending 31st December 1850 Cost of repair and maintenance of the said almshouses in the like period Income for the year ending 31st De 196 0 2 1 11 10 4,335 1 11 624 17 11 470 18 10 5,628 10 8 s. d. cember 1850 5,687 14 3 No. VI. Statement by Hugh Dempster, Writer in Greenock, upon the Cases conducted by him as Agent for Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour, and Co. against Seamen under the "General Seamen's Act," and the "Mercantile Marine Act." Since December, 1847, I have been employed as agent for the prose. cution, in a number of actions, at the instance of Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour & Co., directed against seamen deserting abroad, under the provisions both of the General Merchant Seamen's Act, and Mercantile Marine Act. So far as my recollection goes, the accused pled guilty in every one of the cases I refer to, and none of them (the cases) ever received any professional opposition, but still they have been all attended with very great expense to the shipowner. It appears to me that this arises in a great measure from a want of legislation in the formula, or probably from the legislature not having had the forms of procedure used in Scotland sufficiently within their purview. In England, I believe, the act is administered under a short inexpensive writ, and the case at once disposed of by the sitting magistrate; but as the act provides no form, each country pursues its own system of procedure, which in Scotland, in regard to penal actions, is formal, tedious, cumbersome, and expensive. Accordingly, the practitioner in Scotland considers it necessary to embody in the complaint the sections of the act of parliament applicable thereto, and to enter into a long written detail of the whole circumstances attending the seaman's engagement and offence, and if the punishment infers imprisonment, the proceeding must receive the concurrence of the public prosecutor; then the defender may be ordered to be cited to a diet on some future day, and in the meantime to be served with a copy of the complaint and its warrant. When he does appear, either under a citation, or immediate apprehension, a declaration is taken, and unless he pleads guilty, the declaration is followed by proof, which is all taken down in writing; all this is attended with heavy costs to the prosecutor, who, rather than submit to incur them, will often allow the offender te escape with impunity. : I may enumerate the following cases as illustrative of my experience: I. Dec. 1847. Pollok, Gilmour, & Co. against Weir and Smart, deserters, for excess of wages paid SUBSTITUTES. General Merchant Seamen's Act. to prosecute two seamen named Weir and Smart (who had deserted at Quebec), from the Barque " Ann Rankin," belonging to them, under the General Merchant Seamen's Act, for the excess of wages paid to the substitutes hired in their room to navigate the vessel home. A complaint was presented to the Justices at Port Glasgow against each of these seamen, which extended to twenty-one pages in length. The seamen were apprehended and taken before the Justices at Port Glasgow, and pleaded guilty; but being unable to pay any part of the claim (for they had spent all the wages they had received for the voyage back), they were sentenced to be imprisoned for two months. Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour, & Co. did not insist on carrying the sentence into effect, but liberated them upon an admonition as to their future conduct. But although upon the matter of expense something was thus saved, still the cost between agent, officers, and the clerk of court, amounted in both cases to 10l. 13s. 6d. Agent......£8 18 6 .... Court 1 0 6 £10 13 6 II. Nov. 1849. Case of William Wood for forfeiture of wages back to United Kingdom. Expenses, 5.13s. Od.; Sum re covered, 97. 11s. 6d. General Merchant Seamen's Act. II. The next case I was employed in for the house of Pollok, Gilmour, & Co., was directed against a seaman named William Wood, who had deserted from the ship "Canton," at Quebec, in the fall of 1849, for forfeiture of his wages for the voyage back to the United Kingdom, in a vessel called the "Chancellor." The complaint, with the clauses of the act founded on, and the detail of circumstances, occupied eighteen pages, and the Justices thought it fit to order a full copy to be served on the master, another on the owner of the "Chancellor," and another on the seaman, which occupied, with the principal complaint, above seventytwo pages of copying. The expenses in that case, inclusive of the agent's, court, and officer's fees, amounted to 5l. 13s. Od., while the wages forfeited amounted only to 97. 11s. 6d. Agent.....4 96 Clerk of 0 15 6 £5 13 0 III. August, 1851. Watson against Kneale, for continued disobedience and neglect of duty. 13 & 14 Vict. cap. 93. III. The next case I have to refer to was one under the Mercantile Marine Act, at the instance of William Watson, master of the "Lotus," belonging to Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour, & Co., against a seaman named Kneale, for continued disobedience and neglect of duty on the homeward voyage of the "Lotus" from Quebec, in August last. The complaint in this case extended to twelve pages; and before it could be drafted, copied, and a warrant got in, the seaman had absconded, and the expenses, which amounted to about 41. 3s. 4d., were incurred to no purpose. IV. The following cases against seamen for desertion at Quebec, I was employed to prosecute on behalf of Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour, & Co., in October and November last. Agent.....£2 17 4 0 26 £4 3 IV. Oct. 1851. Pollok, Gilmour, 4 Co. against seame& for desertion. 13n & 14 Vict. cap. 93. T |