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INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



explain why and how it has so injured the trade which 

 had previously got along pretty well. 



Allotments. The first clause which would affect fishermen, had it 

 not been entirely set at nought by them, would be section 

 3, subsection i, which renders it illegal for any seaman 

 to allot more than half his wages to his wife, or 

 whoever he may have dependent on him ashore. Now 

 in the case of fishermen this would be a very great 

 hardship if it were enforced. For instance, a man goes 

 to sea for standing wages, say fourteen shillings per week, 

 and a share, the amount of which can only be determined 

 at the end of a voyage. He possibly has a wife and three 

 or four children, maybe more, who require the whole of 

 this weekly money to maintain themselves. If the law 

 were enforced, the man could only allot seven shillings 

 per week, which in many cases would mean starvation. 

 . There is nothing of particular interest to the fisheries 

 till section 10 is reached, which relates to desertion 

 and absence without leave. This, of all sections, is the 

 most injurious to the fishing trade. The Merchant 

 Shipping Act, 1854, in section 243, subsection I, ordered 

 that "For desertion he (a seaman) shall be liable to 

 imprisonment for any period not exceeding twelve weeks, 

 with or without hard labour, and also to forfeit all or any 

 part of the clothes and effects he leaves on board, and all 

 or any part of the wages or emoluments which he has 

 -then earned, and also, if such desertion takes place abroad, 

 at the discretion of the Court, to forfeit all or any part of 

 the wages or emoluments he may earn in any other ship 

 in which he may be employed, until his next return to 

 the United Kingdom, and to satisfy any excess of wages 

 paid by the master or owner of the ship from which 

 he deserts to any substitute engaged in his place at a 



