The Tonnage of Ships. i6$ 



discuss such a very thoughtful paper without having given a 

 considerable time to the study of the subject of tonnage 

 immediately beforehand, and that I have not done. I may say 

 I would be against Mr. Macllwaine's view of the displacement 

 basis for at least one reason ; you might have a large light ship 

 — take for instance the vessel launched to-day — and between 

 that ship's light weight and her load displacement you have a 

 given quantity. Yon might take that ship and fit her out for 

 the cattle trade, and put 500 or 600 tons additional weight on 

 board. Well, there you would have a ship, presumably a better 

 earning property, yet she would be taxed to the extent of, say 

 600 tons less than before. That is one objection which I see to the 

 displacement basis. Another thing which occurs to me is this: 

 How would you treat passenger paddle steamers, where the 

 difference between the light draft and load draft is only a foot, 

 and you have perhaps a ship 250 feet long occupying enormous 

 dock space in proportion to the amount of dues which she 

 would be required to pay ? 



Mr. Macllwaine — I might be allowed to explain that I did 

 not mean to convey that I would tax between light and load 

 draft, but on a percentage of the whole displacement of the 

 vessel. 



Mr. Connel (continuing) — That alters the construction of the 

 case entirely. I have misunderstood that part of the paper. As 

 far as I have been able to study this question of tonnage, I am 

 led to the conclusion that the tonnage measurement for the 

 Suez Canal is probably as fair a basis as one could have. There 

 are very special cases, such as Mr. Macllwaine referred to, no 

 doubt ; but I think for ordinary sea-going craft the method of 

 measuring for the Suez Canal is a tolerably fair one. One 

 argument against the present system of allowing 32 per cent, 

 deduction from the tonnage for propelling power is this, the 

 system of fitting forced draught to the furnaces is becoming 

 more and more popular yearly. It is found that a ship may 

 have the 32 per cent, deduction when working under natural 

 draught, but as soon as you take the large boilers out and put 



