428 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



Section 4 of the Merchant Seamen Payment of Wages and 

 Rating Act, 1880, also here incorporated, by subsections, 

 provides as follows: Subsection I. "That the balance of 

 wages due to a seaman shall be paid him within two days 

 after he leaves his ship." This, in the case of fishermen 

 fishing by the share, or of masters or mates of smacks 

 receiving poundage, would be impracticable, as in the case 

 of fish being sent away for sale at an inland market, 

 which is frequently done, the account sales and cash not 

 being received from the consignee (weekly settlements 

 being the custom), the balance of such wages would not 

 be in hand or known, and could not therefore be paid ; 

 while in the case of drift fishermen the many disbursements 

 for the voyage might not be known, or the accounts made 

 up, and therefore the balance due could not always be 

 ascertained. This subsection, by mentioning the word 

 "balance," evidently anticipates that advances will have 

 been made. It therefore qualifies section 170 of the 

 Merchant Shipping Act, which is previously incorporated, 

 and which reads in the portions bearing on this point : 

 "Shall be discharged and receive their wages in the 

 presence of a shipping master," and any owner who " pays 

 his wages within the United Kingdom in any other 

 manner shall incur a penalty not exceeding ten pounds." 

 Evidently, then, paying a fisherman on account weekly or 

 otherwise would be illegal under this clause. 



Subsection 2, coupled with section 171, of the Act of 

 1854, provides for the making out by the master of an 

 account of wages and of all deductions therefrom, being 

 set out under a penalty not exceeding $, and no 

 deduction is to be allowed unless included in the account 

 so delivered, the master to enter the various deductions as 

 they occur in books kept for that purpose. Now, as many 



