1 66 The Tonnage of Ships. 



small ones in, you do not gel this deduction. I believe that if 

 the 32 per cent, deduction was abolished, and we deducted 

 instead just the space occupied by the machinery and permanent 

 bunkers, we would have a tolerably fair deduction for propelling 

 power in all vessels. I do not remember any other point in 

 the paper with which I do not find myself at one. 



Mr. Maxton — I have listened with very great interest to Mr. 

 Macllwaine's paper, and regret very much it was not more ex- 

 haustive. I thought he was going to criticise severely the 

 Board of Trade, Lloyds, and a lot of naval architects. I am 

 sorry he did not say more about the anomalies in the present 

 system of tonnage measurement. I might mention one that 

 naval architects are generally aware of, namely, the vague- 

 ness of tonnage "length" of a vessel, and would suggest that 

 the length on the load line and from inner post of steamers 

 should be used. I remember some two years ago I had a great 

 number of calculations to do in reference to the gross displace- 

 ment to the upper surface of the deck. I calculated several 

 vessels from measurements taken internally, and I found a great 

 difference between the under deck tonnage arrived at by an 

 accurate method and the Board of '1 rade under deck tonnage. 

 I calculated the tonnages by what is considered an exact method, 

 whereas the Board of Trade was computed by the usual rule. 

 In one vessel about 260 feet long I found a difference of about 

 25 tons, so that the owner was paying dues on about 25 tons 

 more than he should have done. In reference to the question 

 of charging dues upon the tonnage of vessels I think there 

 might have been something said in its favour. In one respect 

 I disagree with Mr. Macllwaine about paying dues upon a per- 

 centage of the gross displacement, for this reason ; We should 

 always pay in some proportion to the amount of benefit we 

 receive, and, in the case of dues, in proportion to the amount of 

 expenditure involved in providing accommodation for vessels. 

 There is a considerable amount of favour, in my opinion, due to 

 the method by which the dues are charged upon a numeral 

 derived from the length, breadth, and draft. The draft element 



