Ixxiv 



Fourth Anmcal Beport of the 



the harbours, and also that some Local Authority should be 

 appointed to levy dues and to attend to and regulate the affairs 

 of each harbour. The attainment of these desirable objects, 

 by obtaining a special Act of Parliament, is from its expense 

 out of the question. The Board, however, thought that resort 

 might be had to Provisional Orders under the Acts 24 and 25 

 Vict. cap. 45, and 25 and 26 Vict cap. 19, which were passed in 

 1861 and 1862 to meet cases of a similar kind. Communication 

 accordingly was opened with the Board of Trade through the 

 Home Secretary, as it is to the Board of Trade that a memorial 

 The Board's for the Order has, as the initial step, to be presented. This 

 Jppiy^for° was necessary in order to ascertain whether they would con- 

 Provisiona! sidcr this Board as competent ' promoters ' of an Order, and also 

 Orders, whether the Board of Trade would insist on the condition, imposed 

 as regards all Provisional Orders in other cases, of this Board's 

 finding security for the Board of Trade's necessary costs, charges, 

 and expenses. Even were the Board of Trade not to insist on this 

 condition, there were other expenses connected with the necessary 

 advertisements and the deposit of plans and a schedule of rates 

 which would fall, in the first instance, on this Board as the 

 promoters, although, as in all other Orders, a clause would be 

 inserted making these expenses repayable as a first charge out of 

 the rates and dues imposed. To the Board's application on the 

 subject, the Board of Trade sent the following reply through the 

 Home Office : — 



Board of Trade (Harbour Department), 

 Whitehall Gardens, S.W., 

 7th April 1885. 



Sir, — I am directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt 

 of your letter of the 23rd ult., in which you transmit copy of a letter 

 from the Fishery Board for Scotland relative to the question of fisher- 

 men and others locally interested being constituted as harbour authorities 

 for places in Scotland by provisional Orders under the general Pier and 

 Harbour Acts. 



In compliance with your request for the observations of this Board in 

 the matter, I am to ask that you will lay the following remarks before 

 Secretary Sir William Harcourt. 



The constitution of a harbour authority is one of the objects which 

 may properly be made the subject of an application for a Provisional 

 Order, under the General Pier and Harbour Acts, and the power conferred 

 by these Acts upon the Board of Trade for this purpose has from time to 

 time been exercised in respect of places in Scotland, and other parts of 

 the United Kingdom. 



The Board of Trade are, however, only able to exercise this power upon 

 due application made to them, and though always desirous to further any 

 scheme deserving of support, they have no authority to initiate the 

 proceedings for an application. It is therefore difficult to see how the 

 object in question can be attained, in respect of the incorporation as 

 harbour authority at any place, of persons locally interested, unless such 

 persons themselves come forward as promoters, and are prepared to defray 

 preliminary expenses in respect of the application for the Order and of 

 the earlier steps for administering its provisions. 



