356 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



coasting vessels, which are more able to carry out such a 

 system, is nearly always ignored by writing across it, 

 " Sufficient without waste." Then follows a short general 

 agreement, which, briefly summed up, is to the effect that 

 the crew who have signed their names to it shall do 

 everything that is proper, or be fined from half a day's 

 to one month's pay, according to a scale which is given 

 on page 9 of the agreement, which sets forth the fine 

 to be enforced for various offences, and to which scale 

 (any portion, or none of it) the crew have, when signing, 

 to signify their willingness to be subject. The spaces 

 left for crew to sign in are forty, whereas fifteen would 

 have been ample, previous to the abolition of imprisonment 

 for desertion, for any fishing vessel. Then follow spaces 

 for account of apprentices, births, and deaths on board. 

 The first and the last are reasonable, but the space for 

 births is of no use for fishing vessels. Then follows space 

 for endorsements by superintendents of Mercantile Marine? 

 and particulars of voyages, which are useless. Then 

 the agreement finishes with instructions to masters, which 

 are sections quoted from the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, 

 and are applicable to fishing vessels only in a very 

 small degree ; in fact, as they now stand, with regard to 

 fishing vessels, are a mass of confusion. At the end of 

 every half year this agreement should be deposited at the 

 Mercantile Marine office by the owner or master under a 

 penalty of no C. C. being granted to enable the vessel 

 to be cleared at the custom house. Now as fishing 

 vessels have never required nor would they be able to 

 clear at the custom house, this said C. C. has not been 

 required by them, consequently the agreement has been 

 sometimes returned, sometimes not ; and hundreds of 

 agreements that have been returned have been very 



