70 REPORT—1857. 
operative assistance of the Statistical Section of the British Association, in 
accordance with the recommendation and resolution of the General Com- 
mittee of the British Association to that effect. 
Preparatory to this meeting on Thursday, the lst January, and in order 
that the opinions of each of the members of the Committee, whether present 
or not, may be known and duly noticed, it is requested that each member 
will be pleased to communicate in writing, on or before Monday, 1st De- 
eember next, addressed to “ The Secretary of the Tonnage Committee, Society 
of Arts, Adelphi, London,” his opinions on the following poiuts, and on such 
other points as may especially occur to respective members in relation to 
the matters submitted by the British Association for the consideration of 
this Committee :— 
1. To particularize the objects of public utility, fiscal, mercantile, scien- 
tific, and statistical, sought to be attained, or which may be promoted by a 
complete system of measurement, and comprehensive registration of the 
tonnage capabilities of ships, and the engine capabilities of steam ships. 
2. Admitting that the present system of tonnage admeasurement, as pre- 
scribed by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, giving the ixlernal roomage 
of ships, affords useful data for registration so far as it goes, what are the 
additional details of admeasurement which are required to give the capability 
of ships for carrying weight of cargo, and in other respects necessary to render 
the official registration of shipping, as periodically published by authority in 
the Mercantile Navy List, complete and effective for the objects of public 
utility above referred to? 
3. To particularise in what respects the present system of tonnage and 
engine-power admeasurement and registration, as prescribed by Part 2 of the 
Merchant Shipping Act of “1854,” is deficient and not effective for the 
attainment of the objects of public utility above referred to. 
4, Following the example of limitations commonly prescribed by Govern- 
ment in matters wherein public safety is concerned, such, for example, as 
protection from fire in Building Acts, what are the objections to the official 
assignment of some limit to the load-draught of water, based on ordinary 
conditions of protection from wreck, at which ships may Jeave port; and 
presuming on the necessity for some limit being assigned which the draught 
of water may not exceed, by what rules may this limit be most correctly 
determined, and by what regulations may it be most effectually enforced 
without involving unnecessary interference with mercantile shipping trans- 
actions ? 
5. In what respects is it commercially equitable, or in other respects 
advisable, to make a discriminative distinction between sailing ships and 
steamers in the measurement of the registered tonnage on which dues may 
be charged on shipping ? 
6. In what respects is it commercially equitable, or in other respects advi- 
sable, in the measurement and calculation of registered tonnage, to make a 
discriminative distinction, based on the different materials (whether wood or 
iron, or a combination of both) with which ships may be built, or on the 
different principles of machinery (whether paddle-wheels, screw-propeller, 
paddle and screw combined, water-jet, or other appliance) with which ships 
may be fitted? 
7. Seeing that no definite measure of power has been specifically fixed by 
law as the statute unit of mechanical power (as has been done to regulate all 
other measures of quantity, as in the cases of the statute yard, the statute 
acre, the statute gallon, the statute pound, &e.), and seeing, moreover, that 
in the practice of trade, the “ nominal horse-power” of a steam-ship does not 
helt Stes 
