1897, and since then the board has acquired the ownership of some of the harbor frontage in Boston, and has erected one large pier in South Boston. The general tendency among the States is toward the establishment of State or municipal harbor boards with increased powers. The tendency is also in the direction of the limitation of private ownership, and toward the centralization of the powers of supervision or public ownership in a public board, whose members are in some instances State officials, and in other cases city officers whose powers are derived from the States. The municipal government exercises police supervision over the port under its jurisdiction, and in the case of a great harbor and port like New York this is a task of some magnitude. In 1905 the waters of Greater New York were under the control of the forty-second police precinct, to which there were attached a steamer-the Patrol -four steam launches, three naphtha launches, and seven rowboats. The police force comprised one captain, six sergeants, twelve roundsmen, and sixty patrolmen. The force of men in charge of the steamer Patrol is subject at all times to calls to assist the police in boarding incoming vessels when necessary, in taking off prisoners, in attending and aiding at fires among shipping or along the river front, in keeping order on excursion steamers, and in assisting vessels in distress. The launches and rowboats, with their crews, are assigned to posts which they patrol during their hours of duty, to enforce the laws and ordinances of the city, to recover drowned bodies, and prevent stealing, as far as possible, from the barges, vessels, and docks within the harbor. The taxation of property invested in shipping, and the determination or regulation of the charges that shall be paid for the use of docks and other transfer and storage facilities, are powers which the States possess. The policy of the States regarding taxation and port charges is considered in the following chapter. REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING BYALL, J. B. "The American System of Improving and Administering Commercial Facilities." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. xxiv, pp. 489– 506, November, 1904. SMITH, J. R. "The Organization of Ocean Commerce," Chapter XIII. "The United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service." (This is a pamphlet of forty-six pages comprising "a historical sketch" and an account of "the service as it is to-day," reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, 1904.) 66 'Report of the State Board (of Massachusetts) on Docks and Terminal Facilities." Boston, 1897. (This volume gives an account of the control of docks and terminal facilities at the large ports of the United States and of Europe.) CHAPTER XVII PORT AND TERMINAL CHARGES AND THE TAXATION OF SHIPPING A VESSEL entering or clearing a port has several charges to pay, whether the port is administered directly by public authority, as at Hamburg, Germany, by a “public trust," as at Liverpool, England, or jointly by a public board and private corporations subject to Government regulation, as in most ports of the United States. The charges consist in part of tonnage taxes and the customhouse, quarantine, port-warden, and consular fees imposed by the Government, and in part of the pilotage, tonnage, wharfage, and stevedore expenses of a strictly commercial character. In addition to these charges there. are various other items of expense, varying with the character of the vessel, the nature of the cargo, the time the ship is in port, and the navigation laws of the different countries. All the charges necessarily incurred by a vessel in entering and clearing a port, and in discharging and loading its cargo, with the exception of the wages. of stevedores, may be and usually are carefully regulated by public authority. In the United States this power of regulation is divided between the Federal and State governments. Some tables giving the charges actually paid by vessels at representative ports of the United States will indicate clearly what terminal expenses must be met by the ocean carrier. The first table refers to a tramp steamer of 1,200 tons net register, with a cargo of 800 tons of agricultural implements, and states the expenses of entering the port of New York and discharging its cargo. This table does not give the cost of clearing the port, and omits various expenses that are cited in the following tables: 1 Pilotage, draft of 18 feet, at $4.13 a foot. Federal tonnage tax, at 6 cents per ton net register. Health officer's fee.. Quarantine inspection charges.. $74.34 72.00 5.50 5.00 5.00 This ship could have entered and discharged its cargo at Antwerp, Belgium, for $443.62, during the summer months, and for $484.48 during the winter, when the pilotage rates are higher. The charges at Rotterdam during the summer would have been $396.76; at Hamburg, $600:11; at Havre, $741.52; and at Liverpool, $1,075.43. The high costs at Liverpool are due to the expense of docking the ship, and to the higher charges for discharging the cargo. The second table is more instructive, because it gives the cost of entering and clearing the port of New York, and includes all the various items of expense actually in; curred in discharging a cargo of general merchandise and taking on another general cargo. It will be noticed that the ship was a sailing vessel, and had to be towed into and out of port. Its costs for loading and unloading were more than they would have been had the ship been 1 See United States Daily Consular Reports, April 21, 1904. a steamer. The heavy wharfage charges show that the ship was in port for some time. The long trip from China necessitated putting the ship in the dry dock. ENTRANCE, CLEARANCE, AND PORT CHARGES AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK FOR A SAILING VESSEL OF 1,760 TONS NET REGISTER, WITH 3,570 TONS GENERAL CARGO FROM CHINA, AND 600 TONS SHINGLE BALLAST, AND OUTWARD WITH 3,421 TONS GENERAL CARGO TO AUSTRALIA1 Custom-house entry, health officer, United States tonnage The wharfage charges allowed by the laws of the State of New York are 2 cents per day per register ton up to 200 tons, and cent per ton in excess of 200 tons. For vessels occupying an outside berth the rates are one 1 This table is taken from Urquhart, "Dues and Charges on Shipping in Foreign Ports." |