460 REPORT 185(». 



this Committee ; consequently, Mr. James R. Napier and Mr. James Peake 

 were tiie only parties available for cooperation with myself (Mr. Hender- 

 son) in this matter, and it has therefore been considered most advisable, 

 under the circumstances above referred to, not to officiate in our collective 

 capacity as a Committee of the British Association, but simply to give our 

 individual aid in promoting the discussions which have thus sprung up. 



With this view, I have myself taken a personal interest in the discussion 

 of tiie tonnage registration question before the Society of Arts, as exem- 

 plified by the documents submitted herewith, showing a large amount of 

 statistical data on steam-ship performances, which has been collected by me 

 since I originally brought it before the Institute of Civil Engineers in 184<7, 

 with the view of collecting in the archives of that Institution, statistics of 

 the progress of improvement in our mercantile marine. 



The papers comprise my view as to tonnage measurement, as laid before 

 the Board of Trade in 1850 and in 1852, and as to steam navigation and 

 the speed realized by mail steamers as laid before Parliament in 1851, papers 

 read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1853, the British Association 

 in 1854, and published by the Society of Arts in 1855; together with the 

 discussions that have taken place in the Journal of that Society, in 1856, on 

 Mr. Atherton's paper on Tonnage Registration. The system of measurement 

 I proposed to the Board of Trade in 1850, being exemplified by z. pro forma 

 certificate of survey appended to the paper, as well as by a tabular analysis 

 of the proportion and displacement of different ships and modes of measure- 

 ment, including the paper read before the Association last year, and 

 subsequent information, as well as proposed new rules, will be printed com- 

 plete, before submitting them to the consideration of any committee or 

 authority that will investigate the whole question. 



Mr. James R. Napier has, I understand, during the past twelve months, 

 collected much statistical information on the trial performances of steam 

 ships, and Mr. Peake has taken the opportunity of drawing public attention 

 to the question of the mode of measurement most available for shipping 

 operations ; by these means I beg to bring to the notice of the General 

 Committee, that the individual labours of Mr. Atherton, Mr. Napier, Mr. 

 Peake, and myself, have now contributed materially to the elucidation of the 

 subject referred to, thereby facilitating any further effort that may be decided 

 on ; and the favourable manner in which Mr. Atherton's paper on the analo- 

 gous subject of " Mercantile Steam Transport Economy " has been received 

 at the Mechanical Section of the Association, affords every prospect of the 

 labours of this Committee being now prosecuted under far more encouraging 

 prospects of public support and cooperation, on the part of the shipping 

 interests themselves, than has hitherto been the case. 



As an example of the benefit to be derived from public discussion, I may 

 refer to the numbers of that popular work, the ' Mechanics' Magazine,' pub- 

 lished during the months of April, May, and June last, in which, after fully 

 investigating the subject of the deficiencies of our present tonnage regis- 

 tration for scientific purposes, the Editor has been pleased to announce 

 the following admitted deficiencies and proposed corrections of our present 

 system for the consideration of its numerous readers: — 



" First. That the tonnage, measurement, and registration of vessels has 

 never been brought before Government in any other than a purely fiscal 

 point of view. 



" Secondly. That Government in legislating on tonnage registration has 

 not contemplated the scientific features of the case, nor those which bear on 

 the sea voyage. 



