charter of such ship, or vessel, or steamer, or any renewal or transfer thereof, if the registered tonnage of such ship, or vessel, or steamer does not exceed three hundred tons, three dollars. Exceeding three hundred tons and not exceeding six hundred tons, five dollars. Exceeding six hundred tons, ten dollars. Entry of any goods, wares, or merchandise at any customhouse, either for consumption or warehousing, not exceeding one hundred dollars in value, twenty-five cents. Exceeding one hundred dollars and not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, fifty cents. Exceeding five hundred dollars in value, one dollar. Entry for the withdrawal of any goods or merchandise from customs bonded warehouse, fifty cents. Insurance (marine, inland, fire,): Each policy of insurance or other instrument, by whatever name the same shall be called, by which insurance shall be made or renewed upon property of any description (including rents or profits), whether against peril by sea or on inland waters, or by fire or lightning, or other peril, made by any person, association, or corporation, upon the amount of premium charged, one-half of one cent on each dollar or fractional part thereof: Provided, That purely cooperative or mutual fire insurance companies carried on by the members thereof solely for the protection of their own property and not for profit shall be exempted from the tax herein provided. Manifest for custom-house entry or clearance of the cargo of any ship, vessel, or steamer for a foreign port― If the registered tonnage of such ship, vessel, or steamer does not exceed three hundred tons, one dollar. Exceeding three hundred tons and not exceeding six hundred tons, three dollars. Exceeding six hundred tons, five dollars. Mortgage or pledge, of lands, estate, or property, real or personal, heritable, or movable, whatsoever, where the same shall be made as a security for the payment of any definite and certain sum of money, lent at the time or previously due and owing or forborne to be paid, being payable; also any conveyance of any lands, estate, or property whatsoever, in trust to be sold or otherwise converted into money, which shall be intended only as security, either by express stipulation or otherwise; on any of the foregoing exceeding one thousand dollars and not exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars, twenty-five cents; and on each five hundred dollars or fractional part thereof in excess of fif teen hundred dollars, twenty-five cents: Provided, That upon each and every assignment or transfer of a mortgage, lease, or policy of insurance, or the renewal or continuance of any agreement, contract, or charter, by letter or otherwise, a stamp duty shall be required and paid at the same rate as that imposed on the original instrument. Passage ticket, by any vessel from a port in the United States to a foreign port, if costing not exceeding thirty dollars, one dollar. NAV 99, PT 2- -26 Costing more than thirty and not exceeding sixty dollars, three dollars. Costing more than sixty dollars, five dollars. Protest: Upon the protest of every note, bill of exchange, acceptance, check or draft, or any marine protest, whether protested by a notary public or by any other officer who may be authorized by the law of any State or States to make such protest, twenty-five cents. Warehouse receipt for any goods, merchandise, or property of any kind held on storage in any public or private warehouse or yard, except receipts for agricultural products deposited by the actual grower thereof in the regular course of trade for sale, twenty-five cents: Provided, That the stamp duties imposed by the foregoing schedule on manifests, bills of lading, and passage tickets shall not apply to steamboats or other vessels plying between ports of the United States and ports in British North America. PART L.-ADMINISTRATIVE AND EXECUTIVE OFFICES. 417. Bureau of Navigation. 418. Shipping commissioners. 419. Customs officers. 420. Steamboat Inspection Service. 421. Marine-Hospital Service. 422. Immigration Bureau. 417. Bureau of Navigation. 423. Life-Saving Service. 427. Coast and Geodetic Survey. There shall be in the Department of the Treasury of the July 5, 1884. United States a Bureau of Navigation, under the imme diate charge of a Commissioner of Navigation. The Commissioner of Navigation, under the direction of Sec. 2. the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have general superintendence of the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the United States, so far as vessels and seamen are not, under existing laws, subject to the supervision of any other officer of the Government. He shall be specially charged with the decision of all questions relating to the issue of registers, enrollments, and licenses of vessels, and to the filing and preserving of those documents; and wherever in title forty-eight |R. S., 4131-4305] or fifty |R. S., 4311-4390] of the Revised Statutes any of the above-named documents are required to be surrendered or returned to the Register of the Treasury, such requirement is hereby repealed, and such documents shall be surrendered and returned to the Commissioner of Navigation. Said Commissioner shall have charge of all similar documents now in the keeping of the Register of the Treasury, and shall perform all the duties hitherto devolved upon said Register relating to navigation. The Commissioner of Navigation shall be charged with Sec. 3. the supervision of the laws relating to the admeasurement of vessels, and the assigning of signal letters thereto, and of designating their official number; and on all questions of interpretation growing out of the execution of the laws relating to these subjects, and relating to the collection of tonnage tax, and to the refund of such tax when collected erroneously or illegally, his decision shall be final. The Commissioner of Navigation shall annually prepare Sec. 4. and publish a list of vessels of the United States belonging to the commercial marine, specifying the official number, signal letters, names, rig, tonnage, home port, and place and date of building of every vessel, distinguishing in such Sec. 5. Sec. 6. R. S.. 4501. Sec. 27. list sailing-vessels from such as may be propelled by steam or other motive power. He shall also report annually to the Secretary of the Treasury the increase of vessels of the United States, by building or otherwise, specifying their number, rig, and motive power. He shall also investigate the operations of the laws relative to navigation, and annually report to the Secretary of the Treasury such particulars as may, in his judg ment, admit of improvement or may require amendment. The Commissioner of Navigation shall, under the direc tion of the Secretary of the Treasury, be empowered to change the names of vessels of the United States, under such restrictions as may have been or shall be prescribed by act of Congress. The Commissioner of Navigation shall be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall receive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum. And the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to transfer from existing Bureaus or divisions of the Treasury one clerk, to be designated as deputy commissioner of navigation, to act with the full powers of said Commissioner during his temporary absence from his official duty for any cause, and such additional clerks as he may consider necessary to the successful operation of the Bureau of Navigation, without impairing the efficiency of the Bureaus or divisions whence such clerks may be transferred. 418. Shipping commissioners. The Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint a commisJune 26, 1884. sioner for each port of entry, which is also a port of ocean navigation, and which, in his judgment, may require the same; such commissioner to be termed a shipping commissioner, aud may, from time to time, remove from office any such commissioner whom he may have reason to believe does not properly perform his duty, and shall then provide for the proper performance of his duties until another person is duly appointed in his place: Provided, That Shipping Commissioners now in office shall continue to perform the duties thereof until others shall be appointed in their places. Shipping Commissioners shall monthly render a full, exact, and itemized account of their receipts and expenditures to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall determine their compensation, and shall from time to time determine the number and compensation of the clerks appointed by such commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to the limitations now fixed by law. The Secretary of the Treasury shall regulate the mode of conducting business in the shipping offices to be established by the shipping commissioners as hereinafter provided, and shall have full and complete control over the same, subject to the provisions herein contained; and all expenditures by shipping commissioners shall be audited and adjusted in the Treasury Department in the June 19, 1886, mode and manner provided for expenditures in the collection of customs. Every shipping-commissioner so appointed shall give R. S., 4502. bond to the United States, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office, for a sum, in the discretion of the circuit judge, of not less than five thousand dollars, with two good and sufficient sureties therefor, to be approved by such judge; and shall take and subscribe the following oath before entering upon the duties of his office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will truly aud faithfully discharge the duties of a shipping commissioner to the best of my ability, and according to law." Such oath shall be indorsed on the commission or certificate of appointment, and signed by him, and certified by the officer before whom such oath shall have been taken. Any shipping commissioner may engage clerks to assist him in the transaction of the business of the shipping-office, at his own proper cost, and may, in case of necessity, depute such clerks to act for him in his official capacity; but the shipping-commissioner shall be held responsible for the acts of every such clerk or deputy, and will be personally liable for any penalties such clerk or deputy may incur by the violation of any of the provisions of this Title [R. S., 4501-4613]; and all acts done by a clerk, as such deputy, shall be as valid and binding as if done by the shippingcommissioner. R. S., 4505. June 19, 1886. Each shipping-commissioner shall provide a seal with R.S., 4506. which he shall authenticate all his official acts, on which seal shall be engraved the arms of the United States, and the name of the port or district for which he is commissioned. Any instrument, either printed or written, purporting to be the official act of a shipping-commissioner, and purporting to be under the seal and signature of such shipping commissioner, shall be received as presumptive evidence of the official character of such instrument, and of the truth of the facts therein set forth. Mar. 3, 1897. The Secretary of the Treasury shall assign in public R. S., 4507. buildings or otherwise procure suitable offices and rooms for the shipment and discharge of seamen, to be known as shipping commissioners' offices, and shall procure furniture, stationery, printing, and other requisites for the transaction of the business of such offices. In no case shall the salary, [fees, and emoluments] of any officer appointed under this Title [R. S., 4501-4613] be more than five thousand dollars per annum[; and any additional fees shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States.] 419. Customs officers. R. S., 4594. At each of the ports to which there are appointed a col- R. S., 2621. lector, naval officer, and surveyor, it shall be the duty of the collector: |