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1908. NEW ZEALAND.

MARINE DEPARTMENT (ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1907-8).

Presented to both Houses of the General Alterably by Command of His Excellency.

My Lord, — Marine Department, Wellington, 20th August, 1908. I do myself the honour to transmit herewith, for Your Excellency's information, the report of the Marine Department of the Dominion for the financial year ended the 31st March last. I have, &c, J. A. Ml 1,1,AH, Minister of Marine. His Excellency the Right Bon. Baron Plunket, Governor of New Zealand.

Sir, — Marine Department, Wellington, 12th June, 1908. I have the honour to make the following report on the work of this Department during the financial year ended the 31st March last. Engagement and DUeharge of Seamen. —The Superintendents of Mercantile Marine at the various ports have carried out their duties connected with the engagement and discharge of seamen in a satisfactory manner, and appended is a return showing the number of seamen engaged and discharged and the fees reoeived at the mercantile marine offices. At Lyttelton the Superintendent is assisted in the discharge of his duties by a Custom* officer, without whose help it would be impossible for him to carry on. The Customs officers at Lyttelton do not, however, remain long at that port, and consequently the Superintendent has not the advantage of having the help of an officer of experience in marine work for any length of time. In addition to the work connected with seamen, the duty of inspecting the life-saving appliances of ships has to be performed by a Customs officer when the Superintendent is conducting the examination of masters and mates. This work should, in my opinion, be carried out by a person who has had experience as an officer of ships, and I think that the time has now arrived when an officer with nautical experience should be appointed Assistant Superintendent of Mercantile Marine and Surveyor of Ships at Lyttelton. The work at Dunedin and Port Chalmers has increased so much that further assistance is required, and I recommend that provision be made in the estimates for an Assistant Superintendent of Mercantile Marine and Surveyor of Ships, who should be stal ioned at l'ort Chalmers, as there is a good deal of shipping and survey work to be done there. Captain Smith, Superintendent of Mercantile Marine at Wellington, has been appointed by the Vice-Admiral commanding the Australasian Station to be Royal Naval Registrar for the Dominion. His duties in that capacity are to assist the commanding officer of the drillship to obtain suitable men for enrolment in the Australasian Branch of the Royal Naval Reserve, to keep the necessary hooks and registers, to afford information to candidates, to warn men when they are due for drill, and generally to assist the commander of the drillship to carry out the regulations. Appended are returns showing the accidents to seamen and the sums paid to disabled seamen under section 119 of "The Shipping and Seamen Act, 1903." There is also' attached a return of accidents to persons other than seamen who are employed in connection with ships so far as the Department has been able to obtain reports of such accidents. In order that a complete record of these accidents may be kept, it is advisable that it sliouM be made compulsory that they should be reported, and it is proposed to make provision for this in the Bill which is being prepared to amend the Shipping and Seamen Act. It has been decided that when proceedings are taken against shipmasters for s*oing to sea short-handed, and when their doing so has been caused through men deserting or being absent without leave, prosecutions am also to be instituted against the men if they can bo found,

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