Short title.

Construction of Act.

Admiralty

Recorders of

Cork and

Belfast.

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows; (that is to say,)

1. This Act may be cited as the Court of Admiralty (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1876.

2. The principal Act as amended by this Act and this Act shall be construed together as one Act.

3. The district within which Admiralty jurisdiction may be jurisdiction of exercised by the Court of the Recorder of the borough of Cork shall be the county of Cork, with the parts of the sea adjacent to the same to a distance of three miles from the shore thereof; and the district within which Admiralty jurisdiction may be exercised by the Court of the Recorder of the borough of Belfast shall be the counties of Antrim and Down, with the parts of the sea adjacent to the same to a distance of three miles from the shore thereof.

Power to arrest
and hold to
bail.

Bail in certain

cases.

In addition to any jurisdiction conferred by the principal Act upon these courts, each of them shall have all such jurisdiction, power, and authority as may be necessary for the trial and determination of any cause relating to all or any of the matters following (in this Act referred to as an "Admiralty cause "):

(1.) As to any ciaim for salvage, any cause in which the value of the property saved does not exceed one thousand four hundred pounds, or in which the amount claimed does not exceed four hundred pounds:

(2.) As to any claim arising out of any agreement made for or in relation to the use or hire of any ship, or for or in relation to the carriage of goods in any ship, and also as to any claim in tort in respect of goods carried in any ship, provided the amount claimed does not exceed four hundred pounds:

(3.) In all cases where jurisdiction is given by the principal Act to the local court, and where the amount claimed does not exceed four hundred pounds:

(4.) Any cause in respect of any such claims as aforesaid, in which the value of the property saved or the amount claimed is beyond the amount limited as above mentioned, when the parties agree by a memorandum, signed by them or by their attorneys or agents, that the court shall have jurisdiction, and hear and determine the same.

4. Each of the said courts shall have jurisdiction to arrest and hold to bail, notwithstanding that the amount sued for in the cause shall exceed the limit fixed by the principal Act or by this Act; but in such cases the cause shall in other respects be subject to the provisions of the seventy-seventh section of the principal Act, and the registrars, or officers acting as registrars, in the said courts shall have the same powers within their jurisdiction as are conferred on registrars by section forty-six of the principal Act.

5. If a ship or goods shall be arrested, by a warrant from the High Court of Admiralty in Ireland, within a district subject to the jurisdiction of the court of either of the said recorders, (except in the case of final execution,) bail may be given in the court of the recorder in whose district the same shall have been arrested in

like manner as is provided for by the preceding section; and such recorder shall have in respect of the proceedings for that purpose the same authority and power as the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, subject, however, upon appeal, to the control and direction of the said Judge, and the provisions of section forty-seven of the principal Act shall apply in all cases of arrest under this Act.

6. The High Court of Admiralty, on motion by any party to Power to an Admiralty cause pending in such High Court, may, if it thinks change venue. fit, transfer the cause to either of the said recorders' courts, on such terms (if any) as to security for costs or otherwise as said High

Court may direct.

7. The mode of procedure in the courts of the said recorders in Procedure. Admiralty causes, and the scale of costs and charges to be payable in respect of Admiralty business in such courts, shall be regulated and fixed by rules and orders to be made by the Lord Chancellor, with the concurrence of the said recorders or one of them.

The Lord Chancellor, with the concurrence of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, may also fix and determine what court and office fees shall be payable in respect of such business, and such fees shall be received and accounted for in the manner provided in the one hundred and fourteenth and one hundred and fifteenth sections of the principal Act.

recorders'

8. On the hearing of any Admiralty cause by any one of the Nautical said recorders, such recorder shall have power to call to his assis- assessors in tance one or more nautical assessor or assessors, to be selected by courts. him; and the advice and opinion of such nautical assessor or assessors may be taken by the said recorder in the same manner as is in use in the High Court of Admiralty (Ireland); and such recorder shall have power to direct what remuneration shall be paid to each such assessor for his attendance, and to order the same to be paid by such of the parties to the cause as he shall think just.

ralty causes.

9. The said recorders respectively shall hear and determine Courts for Admiralty causes at the usual courts held within their jurisdiction, hearing Admi or at special courts to be held by them, and which they are hereby required to hold as soon as conveniently may be, after they shall respectively have had notice of issue being joined in an Admiralty cause arising within the jurisdiction of their respective courts.

10. When the amount or value in dispute shall not exceed fifty In certain pounds, the same may be sued for by Civil Bill process, and the cases may sue by Civil Bill. proceedings conducted in the same manner and subject to the same rules as are applicable to other actions by Civil Bill.

11. It shall be lawful for the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Additional Treasury, if they shall think fit, with the consent of the Lord Lieu- salaries. tenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland, to award to each of the said recorders or either of them, as remuneration for any additional duty imposed upon them by this Act or by the principal Act, such annual or other sums as they shall deem reasonable, and such sums shall be paid out of moneys which shall be provided by Parliament for the purpose.

12. It shall be lawful for each of the said recorders, with the Power to appoint marshals. approval of the Lord Chancellor, to appoint some officer of his court, or other fit person to act as marshal within the district over which such recorder has jurisdiction; and such person shall, while acting as such marshal, have, exercise, and be subject to the like jurisdic

Registrar to

in case of

illness, &c.

tion, powers, authorities, and liabilities within such district as the marshal of the High Court of Admiralty in Ireland; and such person while acting as such marshal as aforesaid shall be entitled to claim and receive such fees in respect of Admiralty business as from time to time the Lord Chancellor, with the approval of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, shall order and direct.

The registrar and other officers of the courts of said recorders may also receive, for their own use, such fees in respect of Admiralty business as the Lord Chancellor with such concurrence as aforesaid may direct.

Every officer receiving fees shall keep an account of the fees received by him, and shall be bound, when required, to furnish to the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury an account of his receipts: Provided that it shall be lawful for said Commissioners at any time to order that such officers shall be paid by salaries instead of fees, and to fix the salaries, and thereupon the fees paid to such officers shall be paid into the Exchequer at such times and under such regulations as the said Commissioners shall direct, and the salaries of such officers shall be paid out of moneys to be provided by Parliament.

In causes transmitted from the court of either of the said recorders to the High Court of Admiralty, the person for the time being appointed by such recorder to act as marshal in the district subject to his jurisdiction shall be subject to, and bound to obey, the judge of the High Court of Admiralty.

The marshal of the High Court of Admiralty shall act only in proceedings in the High Court.

13. In case of the illness or unavoidable absence of any person appoint deputy who at the time of the passing of this Act shall hold the office of registrar of either of the said courts, it shall be lawful for such registrar from time to time to appoint a good and sufficient deputy, subject to the approval of the Lord Chancellor, to act during the illness or unavoidable absence of such registrar in his place and for the discharge of the duties by this Act imposed upon such registrar, but not further or otherwise.

Appeal.

Amendment of thirty-seventh section of

The registrar appointing any deputy under this section shall pay the remuneration of such deputy, and shall continue liable notwithstanding such appointment for the due discharge of the duties by this Act imposed upon such registrar.

14. An appeal shall lie from decrees and orders made in Admiralty causes within the provisions of this Act to the same tribunal, and in the same manner, and subject to the same rules as are provided in the principal Act in reference to cases within the jurisdiction of local courts, and the several provisions of the principal Act in relation to local courts (except when the same shall be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act) shall apply to causes and proceedings under this Act.

15. The jurisdiction conferred by the thirty-seventh section of the principal Act upon the High Court of Admiralty shall be and principal Act. is hereby extended to goods shipped upon or carried or about to be shipped upon or carried by any ship from any port in Ireland. This jurisdiction as extended may and shall be exercised by the recorders of the boroughs of Cork and Belfast respectively, where the amount claimed does not exceed four hundred pounds.

jurisdiction

16. After the passing of this Act the High Court of Admiralty Additional shall have jurisdiction to decide all claims arising out of any given to the agreement made for or in relation to the use or hire of any ship, or High Court of for or in relation to the carriage of goods in any ship, and also all Admiralty. claims in tort in respect of goods carried in any ship.

V

CHAPTER 29.

An Act for the Preservation of Wild Fowl.

W

[24th July 1876.]

WHEREAS the wild fowl of the United Kingdom, forming a staple article of food and commerce, have of late years greatly decreased in number by reason of their being inconsiderately slaughtered during the time that they have eggs and young; and whereas owing to their marketable value the protection accorded to them by the Act of the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter seventy-eight, intituled "An "Act for the protection of certain wild birds during the breeding "season," is insufficient; it is expedient therefore to provide for their further protection during the breeding season:

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. The words wild fowl" shall for all the purposes of this Act Definition of be deemed to include the different species of avocet, curlew, dotterel, terms. dunbird, dunlin, godwit, greenshank, lapwing, mallard, oxbird, peewit, phalarope, plover, plover's-page, pochard, purre, redshank, reeve or ruff, sanderling, sandpiper, sealark, shoveller, snipe, spoonbill, stint, stone-curlew, stonehatch, summer-snipe, teal, thick-knee, whaup, whimbrel, widgeon, wild duck, wild goose, and woodcock; the word "sheriff" shall include steward and also sheriff substitute and steward substitute.

which wild fowl shall not

be killed.

2. Any person who shall kill, wound, or attempt to kill or wound, Season during or take wild fowl, or use any boat, gun, net, or other engine or any instrument for the purpose of killing, wounding, or taking any wild fowl, or shall have in his control or possession any wild fowl recently killed, wounded, or taken between the fifteenth day of February and the tenth day of July in any year, shall, on conviction of any such offence before any justice or justices of the peace in England or Ireland, or before the sheriff or any justice or justices of the peace in Scotland, forfeit and pay for every such wild fowl Penalty. so killed, wounded, or taken, or so in his possession, such sum of money not exceeding one pound as to the said justices or sheriff' shall seem meet, together with the costs of the conviction.

3. The Home Office as to Great Britain, and the Lord Lieutenant Home Office, as to Ireland, may, upon application of the justices in quarter sessions &c. on application of jusassembled of any county, extend or vary the time during which the tices may vary killing, wounding, and taking of wild fowl is prohibited by this such period. Act; the extension or variation of such time by the Home Office shall be made by order under the hand of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, after the making of which order the

Persons offending against this Act may be

their names and abodes.

penalties imposed by this Act shall in such county apply only to offences committed during the time specified in such order; and the extension of such time by the Lord Lieutenant shall be made by order to be published in the Dublin Gazette, and a copy of the London Gazette or Dublin Gazette containing such order shall be evidence of the same having been made.

4. Where any person shall be found offending against this Act, it shall be lawful for any person to require the person so offending to give his Christian name, surname, and place of abode; and in required to tell case the person offending shall, after being so required, refuse to give his real name or place of abode, or give an untrue name or place of abode, he shall be liable, on being convicted of any such offence before a justice of the peace or the sheriff, to forfeit and pay, in addition to the penalties imposed by section two, such sum of money not exceeding two pounds as to the convicting justice or sheriff shall seem meet, together with the costs of the conviction.

Penalty for refusing.

Application of penalty.

As to trial of offences committed within the Admiralty jurisdiction.

As to offences committed on boundary

waters.

5. One moiety of every penalty or forfeiture under this Act shall go and be paid to the person who shall inform and prosecute for the same, and the other moiety shall, in England, be paid to some one of the overseers of the poor, or to some other officer (as the convicting justice or justices may direct) of the parish, township, or place in which the offence shall have been committed, to be by such overseer or officer paid over to the use of the general rate of the county, riding, or division in which such parish, township, or place shall be situate, whether the same shall or shall not contribute to such general rate; and in Scotland, to the inspector of the poor of the parish in which the offence shall have been committed, to be by such inspector paid over to the use of the funds for the relief of the poor in such parish; and if recovered in Ireland, such penalty shall be applied according to the provisions of the Fines Act (Ireland), 1851, or any Act amending the same.

6. All offences mentioned in this Act, which shall be committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, shall be deemed to be offences of the same nature and liable to the same punishments as if they had been committed upon any land in the United Kingdom, and may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, and determined in any county or place in the United Kingdom in which the offender shall be apprehended or be in custody, in the same manner in all respects as if they had been actually committed in that county or place; and in any information or conviction for any such offence the offence may be averred to have been committed "on the high seas;" and in Scotland any offence committed against this Act on the sea coast, or at sea beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of any sheriff or justice of the peace, shall be held to have been committed in any county abutting on such sea coast, or adjoining such sea, and may be tried and punished accordingly.

7. Where any offence under this Act is committed in or upon any waters forming the boundary between any two counties, districts of quarter sessions or petty sessions, such offence may be prosecuted before any justice or justices of the peace or sheriff in either of such counties or districts.