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HARBOR FEES AND REGULATIONS.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PORT DUES, CONCERNING PORT CHARGES.

[As submitted to the Conference March 5, 1890.]

According to the data and information obtained by the committee the dues or charges at present imposed as port charges by the nations represented in the Conference are the following:

Mooring, anchorage, pilotage, bill of health, lighterage, port, receipt and manifest, captain of the port, sealing, taking and discharging cargo, telegraphing, entry, tonnage, light-house, sanitary inspection, toll for passing forts, fine for lack of papers, hospital, fine for the absence from the ship of any officer of the national marine, crew list, and wharfage.

The table annexed to this report sets forth specifically which and how many of the charges included in the foregoing list are demanded by the nations respectively, and the amount of each of them.

It is obvious that there is no uniformity either as respects the kind of charges imposed upon ships or as to the amount which has to be paid.

Thus, for example, while in the ports of one country vessels must pay wharfage, pilotage, tonnage, anchorage, light-house dues, admission fee, crew list fee, bill of health charges, port charges, and the fees of the captain of the port; in another country only the entry fee and tonnage are exacted.

The inequalities in respect to the amount of charges of the same kind are likewise considerable. Thus, for example, the tonnage charges in the several American nations varies from one dollar to three cents per tou.

The committee believes that port charges could be made uniform, without injury to the services to which

they relate, by reducing them all to a single kind, tonnage.

Almost all the charges imposed being based upon the capacity or burden of the ship, and the compensation for the various services rendered to the latter being proportioned to its registered tonnage, the varied and inconvenient nomenclature now in use not only makes it necessary to ascertain (not always without difficulty) which and how many of the charges are exacted in a given country, but likewise makes it difficult for merchants to estimate the expenses of a ship in the execution of a charter-party.

The committee is furthermore of opinion that it would greatly stimulate navigation and promote the interests of commerce, without seriously affecting the public revenues of our respective countries, to fix the charge which we have specified at ten cents per ton; such charge to be paid only once during the year.

The payment of these dues would of course not cover expert or other services rendered to a ship by private persons, such services being provided for by private contracts or by schedules arranged with reference to the laws or ordinances of the country particularly in question; nor would such tonnage cover such services as those of wharfage or dockage or docks not open to general use without compensation; for the charge in question includes only the payments exacted from vessels by the authorities by way of dues.

The committee would have asked the Conference to recommend the complete abolition of all port dues or charges in the interest of navigation and commerce, believing that the exactions so dispensed with would be more than made up in the cheapness of transportation and the reduction of the price of merchandise; but it (the committee) having been commissioned only to indicate a method for making port charges uniform, it has not felt authorized to formulate such a recommendation.

The committee, accordingly, has the honor to propose that it be recommended to the Governments of the several nations represented in this Conference

First. That all the charges imposed upon vessels as port

dues shall be reduced to a single one, to be known as tonnage dues.

Second. That the amount to be so charged shall not exceed 10 cents per registered ton, payable once a year. For the purposes of such payment the year to be deemed as beginning on the 1st day of January and ending on the 21st day of December.

Third. That a ship which shall have paid tonnage dues in one port shall be exempt from such dues in every other port of the same nation, on presenting a certificate of payment issued by the authority concerned.

Fourth. That the following shall be exempt from tonnage dues:

1. Ships of war and transports.

2. Ships of less than 25 tons burden.

3. Ships which have been obliged to enter port, owing to damages received at sea.

NICANOR BOLET PERAZA.
EMILIO C. VARAS.
CLEMENT STUDEBAKER.

APPENDIX.

PORT CHARGES OF THE UNITED STATES, MEXICO, CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

Wharfage of the Riochuelo, from 4 to 5 cents per ton.

Port dues of entry, 10 cents to 60 cents per ton only for entrance. Steamers pay one-half.

Pilotage (compulsory), $40 to $130 and $50 to $150, according to distance.

Light-house, 8 cents per ton.

Captain of port, $20.

Health visit, $25.

Bill of health, $25.

Port dues, national or nationalized, $3; foreign, $4.

NOTE.-The Argentine Congress made many important changes in 1888.

BRAZIL.

Port and custom-house regulations are very explicit and rigorously

enforced, not only to prevent disorder and preserve health, but to check smuggling.

Consular legalization for vessel of 200 tons and under, $6.75.

The maximum charge is $15.75.

Authenticating crew list and bill of health, $2.25.

Consular passport, $2.25.

No vessel is allowed to remain in port more than fifteen working days unless for some good reason, when she is granted an extension of ten days, after which she must pay a fine of 200 milreis per ton.

Anchorage, 25 cents per Brazilian ton, which is an increase of 33 per cent. over an American ton. Vessels in free pratique only pay 20 reis

per metrical ton.

The general charges in the principal ports of the Republic are as follows:

Rio de Janeiro.-Light and anchorage dues are collictible only six times in any one year.

Port dues three-masted vessels, 12,800 reis; two-masted vessels, 9,600 reis.

Seal dues, 40 reis for each mast.

Hospital dues: vessels of three masts, 600 reis; vessels of two masts, 400 reis. Each man on board, 400 reis. Visit of doctor, 8,200 reis. If vessel is sent into quarantine when it enters into free pratique, 8,200 reis.

The official charges on a foreign vessel of 220 tons is about 210 milreis.

Pernambuco.-Pilotage compulsory: Varies, according to capacity of the vessel, from 11,000 to 34,000 reis, and 1,000 reis more for each additional 50 tons.

Light-house dues, from 20,000 to 50,000 reis, according to tonnage of

vessel.

Fort pass, 6,000 reis.

Hospital charges: Vessels of three masts, 6,000 reis; vessels of two masts, 4,000 reis; each person of crew, 640 reis.

Stamp dues: On outward freight to Brazilian ports, on each 1,000 milreis 2 milreis; from ports of Brazil, 4 milreis.

Translation of manifest: First three pages, 5 milreis; each additional page, 3 milreis.

Notarial signature, 5 milreis.

Bill of health, 2 milreis.

Wharfage: For each meter of vessel's length, 400 reis per diem while vessel is loading; when idle, 200 reis per diem.

Mooring compulsory: Mooring boats, 8 milreis; pay of crew, 4 milreis. Rio Grande do Sul.-The official charge of vessels of 245 tons, including pilotage, would be about 255,380 reis.

Chili.-Crew list, $2.

Hospital, 10 cents per registered ton, payable but one time yearly; but if port is entered after December, 10 cents additional per ton.

Colombia.-Tonnage, $1; pilotage, $5 to $10; harbor dues, $6; lighthouse, 5 cents per ton register for first 100 tons, and 24 cents per ton additional.

Vessels that come from other ports of the Republic only pay onehalf. Mail steamers do not pay port dues. In Panama wharfage ranges from 75 cents to $3.75 per ton, according to tonnage of vessels. Costa Rica. Foreign steamers are free of tonnage, and only pay $25 for entering and clearing. Sail-vessels pay 25 cents per ton register and $10 for entry and clearance.

Ecuador.-Wharfage, from $8 to $10 per day; pilotage, from $2 to to $2.50 per Spanish foot. Tonnage, 50 cents per ton. Anchorage, $10. Light-house, 374 cents per ton. There is, in addition, captain of port, $4; permit of entry, $6; crew list, $1; bill of health, $8; harbor dues, $4. Guatemala.-Anchorage, $2; tonnage, 25 cents per ton.

Hayti.-Tonnage, $1 per ton, if there is a reciprocal treaty; if not, $1.50. Wharfage, 1 per cent. on total dues payable by vessels. Telegraph, $2 to support the line. Pilotage varies. Health visit, $5; bill of health, $1. Entry, 6 cents per ton. Loading vessel, 50 cents per ton. Anchorage, $25 if leaving port within twenty-four hours, and from $200 to $300 for privilege of going to a second port. Hire of coach, $2 per day. Interpreter, $4.

Honduras.--Manifest, $2. Tonnage, 25 cents per ton.

Mexico.-Sail-vessels, $1 per ton; steamers, no charge; vessels loaded with coal, no charge. Light-house: Sail-vessels, $25; steamers, $100 each entrance and $100 each clearance; vessels loaded with coal, $25. Nicaragua.-Tonnage, 10 cents per ton. Lighterage, $1 per ton. Pilotage, $3 per foot draught.

Paraguay.-Manifest of discharge of vessels coming from foreign

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Vessels navigating between ports of the Republic pay one-half of the preceding charges.

Bill of health...

Legalization of documents.

$2

1

There are no port, pilot, anchorage, and light-house charges. Peru.-Wharfage, 12 cents per ton entry, and 75 cents per ton on all cargo discharged or embarked.

Tonnage, 25 cents per ton every six months. Light-house, 1 cents per ton each time vessel enters. Hospital, 4 cents per ton register every six months.

Salvador.-Entry, $5 to $15. Tonnage, 15 cents per ton.

United States of America.-Tonnage, 3 to 6 cents, not to exceed 15 cents in any one year. Entry fee: Vessels of 100 tons and upwards,

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