RATES OF NAVIGATION DUES ACCORDING TO THE TONNAGE.
For every Vessel, Ship, Boat, Bark or Lighter, for every Time it comes to the Port or Harbour of Perth, and within that Portion of the Precincts of the said Port and Harbour, lying above the point where the Willowgate Branch of the River falls into the main Stream below Friar Town the following Dues shall be paid.
| If not Registered at any Port of the United Kingdom (register) | 4½d per Ton. |
| If Registered at any Port of the United Kingdom | 3d ditto. |
| If only employed in carrying Goods or other Commodities to or from Dundee, or other Ports in the River Tay | 3d ditto. |
| For every Steam Vessel enployed in the River Tay in carrying Passengers and their Luggage exclusively, which shall enter or leave the said Port or Harbour within the Limits set forth as above | one third ditto. |
For every Vessel remaining at the Harbour or Quays of Perth more than Six Months, one-third more of the above Dues; so remaining One Year, double the above Dues; and the above Rates for every Six Mouths it shall so remain beyond One Year.
For the additional rates and duties leviable upon goods imported and exported, we refer the reader to the Schedule B at the end of the act, as they are far too numerous for our insertion. In addition to these, however, there are the tolls, rates and duties payable to the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Perth, comprised under the name of Custom, Anchorage, Sess Boll, Shore Dues and Coal Deacon's Dues; but as these are charges arising from custom and unsanctioned by any parliamentary enactment, we purposely omit them also.
On the credit of the dues, the commissioners may borrow £16,000 sterling for the purposes of the act; and, for further security, the Lord Provost, Magistrates and City Council of Perth are empowered to interpose the security of the common funds of the city, at the same time. Their rights, dues, duties, privileges and jurisdictions are protected by a clause in the act; so also is the right of free port and harbour claimed by the Right Honorable the Earl of Kinnoul, at the Bridge End of Perth, as a part and pertinent of the Barony of Balhousie.
It is provided, by the last clause in the act, that the payment of dues and duties shall not commence until £5,000 of the requisite fund for improving the navigation has been advanced.
The improvement of a navigation, extending nearly thirty miles into one of the most fertile districts of Scotland, cannot fail to be attended with considerable advantage to the trading community of a city where the manufacture of linen cloth and leather, and the processes of bleaching and printing are carried on to a considerable extent.
