Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1923. No. 175.

REGULATIONS UNDER THE NAVIGATION ACT 1912-1920.

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Navigation Act 1912-1920, to come into operation forthwith.

Dated this twenty-first day of November, 1923.

FORSTER,

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

AUSTIN CHAPMAN,

Minister of State for Trade and Customs.

 

Amendment of Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations.

(Statutory Rules 1923, No. 85.)

1. Regulation 29 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations is amended by omitting sub-regulation (2).

2. After regulation 30 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations the following regulation is inserted:—

List of Assessors to be furnished to each Registrar.

“30a. The Director shall furnish each Registrar with a list of persons appointed to be assessors, showing the classes or sub-classes in which they are classified and the places at which they are respectively located.”

3. Regulation 31 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Assessors to be summoned in rotation.

“31.—(1) Subject to these Regulations, assessors shall, as far as practicable—

“(a) be summoned by the Registrar from among those assessors who are eligible and available to be summoned and who are located at, or most nearly to, the place where the Court is to be held; and

(b) be summoned in rotation within each class or sub-class mentioned in the last preceding regulation, commencing with the assessor first mentioned in the list as being so located.

“(2.) Where, from any cause whatsoever, an assessor when summoned cannot attend, the next eligible and available assessor in rotation shall be summoned.”

 

Regulations

4. Regulation 32 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Director to inform Registrar when Assessors required.

“32. The Director shall inform the Registrar when assessors are required, and shall state from which of the classes or sub-classes assessors ought, in his opinion, to be summoned, but the Director shall not direct or request the summoning of any individual assessor.”

5. After regulation 34 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations the following regulation is inserted:—

Disqualification of Assessors.

“34a.—(1.) An assessor shall not be eligible to be summoned or to act as assessor if—

(a) he has acted in the capacity of surveyor of the vessel in relation to which the inquiry is to be held; or

(b) he is retained as the surveyor of an owner or agent who is a party to the inquiry; or

(c) he has any pecuniary interest in the subject of the inquiry; or

(d) there exists, in the mind of the assessor, a bias in favour of or against a party to the inquiry.

“(2.) Any person who acts as assessor when not eligible so to act shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations:

Penalty: Fifty pounds or imprisonment for three months.

(3.) No proceeding before a Court shall be invalidated or rendered ineffectual by reason only of the fact that an assessor has acted in connection therewith when ineligible so to act.”

6. Regulation 35 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations is amended by omitting the words “ by the Solicitor-General.”

7. Regulation 47 of the Navigation (Courts of Marine Inquiry) Regulations is amended by inserting, after the word “affidavit”, the words “or statutory declaration.”

 

Printed and Published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer for the State of Victoria.