management, and in the transfer of the Liverpool town dues to the Dock estate.
In 1861, Mr. Milner Gibson, then President of the Board of Trade, introduced a Bill[1] by which most of the other grievances were removed. All taxes on shipping, raised for the purpose of granting pensions and other, so-called, charitable objects, were abolished; local differential charges on foreign shipping were, to a large extent, prohibited;[2] the passing tolls levied for the support of such harbours as Ramsgate, Dover, and Bridlington were swept away, and power (on the recommendation originally of the Harbours of Refuge Commission of 1854) was given to the Public Works Loan Commissioners to lend money for the improvement of trading harbours at a low rate of interest.[3] France, to whose shipping laws I shall hereafter refer, abolished her local charges and differential dues; Italy, in 1863, admitted British ships to national treatment; and Austria also, by treaty, in 1868, has followed her example.
Unfortunately, Shipowners are still taxed for the maintenance of the National lights; but, although the recommendations of various Committees have not in this respect been adopted, reductions in the charges levied have been made to no less an extent than 75 per cent, since 1853.[4] Great improvements have*
- ↑ 24 & 25 Vict., cap. 47.
- ↑ This was one of the most difficult and intricate questions any minister ever had to deal with. And for that reason these charges, to which I shall again refer, were not finally dealt with until 1867.
- ↑ By Parliamentary Papers, 176, 1871, no less than 1,846,400l. had been advanced up to that date, on loan for the improvement of trade harbours, and since then, 350,000l., making in all about 2,200,000l.
- ↑ The aggregate reductions since 1853 are estimated (see Parlia-*
