KEGISTRATION AND CERTIFICATION OF SHIPS AND SEAMEN 539
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries attends to the
carriage of live stock in home trade and foreign-going vessels, also
to the interests of the fishing industry generally and the policing of
prohibited fishing areas.
Port and Local Authorities are responsible for the administra-
tion of the areas within their jurisdiction and of such statutory
powers as have been granted to them by the Legislature, such as
the effective lighting and buoying of harbour approaches, pilotage,
levying dock dues, etc.
Classification Societies are not Government Departments
although they work hi co-operation with the Marine Department on
matters affecting the seaworthiness of ships.
There seems to be a somewhat unnecessary distribution of ship
inspectorate duties amongst the several Government Departments,
particularly that of the Board of Trade and the Home Office, and
when, as on the recent occasion of a modern up-to-date cargo vessel
undergoing a routine overhaul, there were seventeen individual
surveyors inspecting various things during the ten days she was in
port it would seem that there is an opportunity here for introducing
a little more concentration of supervisory control.
His Majesty's Stationery Office.—Passing reference to such
regulations as enter directly into the business of the seaman have
been made throughout this book, but only briefly, and in part, as
the precise detail of the many regulations and their modified
application to meet uncommon conditions occupies many pages of
numerous publications. The Board of Trade issues periodically a
" List of the Principal Acts of Parliament, Regulations, Orders,
Instructions, Notices, etc., relating to Merchant Shipping," with
a special list of any Supplementary Circulars that may have been
issued since the previous List was published. The List may be
obtained from His Majesty's Stationery Office, Adastral House,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2, price 6d.
The existence of these publications is not known generally to
seagoing men as they are grouped according to the- following
interests :—Shipowners ; Fishing Boat Owners ; Boiler Makers and
Users; Boat Builders; Shippers of Cargo ; Manufacturers of
Anchors and Chain Cables, Fire Extinguishers, Eog Horns and