CHAPTER VII 
MERCHANT SHIPPING 
THE question of merchant shipping is one in which the 
[Imperial Government has always been directly concerned. 
British shipping is not only of vital consequence to the 
country, and its treatment in the Colonies a subject on which 
the Imperial Government is entitled to make representations, 
but the treatment of foreign shipping is also a matter of 
concern, inasmuch as, apart from treaty rights, any action 
with regard to such shipping which may be considered unfair 
by foreign countries will unquestionably lead to retaliation 
on British shipping, without regard to the fact that the action 
taken may be confined to a portion only of the Empire. 
Originally it was the universal practice to keep in the 
hands of the Imperial Government all legislation regarding 
merchant shipping, but with the disappearance in 1849 of the 
system adopted in the Navigation Acts, greater liberty was 
accorded to the Colonies, and the Merchant Shipping Act of 
1854,! which inaugurated the new system provided by s. 547— 
that the legislative authority of any British Possession shall 
have power by any Act or Ordinance confirmed by Her 
Majesty in Council to repeal wholly or in part any provisions 
of this Act relating to ships registered in such Possession ; 
but no such Act or Ordinance shall take effect until such 
approval has been declared in such Possession, or until such 
' This Act as amended by an Act of 1862, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 63, gives 
Colonial Legislatures power to appoint courts of inquiry into incompetence 
of or misconduct by masters and mates, and to cancel or suspend certificates 
subject to review by the Board of Trade or appeal to the High Court in 
England. Hence the Victoria Passengers Harbour and Navigation Act, 
1865. But in 1881 it was decided by the Supreme Court of Victoria in 
re Victoria Steam Navigation Board, ex parte Allan (7 V. L. R. 248) that the 
Victoria Board under that Act could not inquire into a charge of misconduct 
in the shape of a collision off Cape Jaffa in South Australia, and wider 
powers were therefore given by 45 & 46 Vict. c. 76 (now 57 & 58 Vict. c. 60, 
5. 478) ; see Quick and Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth, pp. 359, 360.