CHAP. VII] MERCHANT SHIPPING 1193 
tion. It is, indeed, a more or less complete code and, prima 
facie, should regulate all British ships which are not registered 
or coasting in the Dominions. But to what extent can 
Dominion Parliaments add further conditions ? To what 
extent do the positive provisions laid down exclude other 
provisions being laid down by Dominion Parliaments ? For 
example, the Imperial Act does not provide for survey of 
non-passenger vessels. It is therefore doubtful whether 
the acceptance of provisions is to be regarded as forbidding 
such legislation, or whether it leaves it open for the Parlia- 
ment of the Commonwealth to require, as it does in the 
Navigation Bill, all steam vessels to be surveyed regularly. 
On grounds of convenience, it has been argued by merchant 
shippers in the United Kingdom that as long as they comply 
with the regulations laid down by the Board of Trade they 
should not be subject to other legislation, whether as to 
survey, the provision of appliances with regard to safety, 
the adjustment of compasses, and so forth. But it is not so 
clear, and in each case it is a matter for consideration on the 
wording of the legislation, whether such legislation is or is not 
repugnant to the Imperial Act. 
In some cases the repugnancy is clear but unimportant. 
For example, the Commonwealth Navigation Bill and the 
New Zealand Act confer on the minister and not on the 
Governor the power to allow a prosecution for sending a 
British ship to sea in an unworthy condition, while s. 457 
of the Imperial Act clearly gives the power, and no doubt 
deliberately, to the Governor. The power, therefore, in cases 
other than those referring to registered or coasting vessels 
must be held to be given improperly to the minister, and this 
is a distinction of some consequence, for the Governor or 
the minister in a self-governing Colony are not necessarily 
synonymous. Or again, the New Zealand Act and the 
Commonwealth Bill transfer to the Dominion and the 
Commonwealth respectively the proceeds of wreck, which 
legally in part still belong to the Imperial Crown. Then 
again, part xi of the Act as to lighthouses apparently restricts 
the power of Colonial Legislatures to levy light dues, and the