Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/458

 While the docks are in the nature of a private undertaking, receiving no aid whatever from government, and happily allowing no government interference beyond the right to appoint three members of the board, they are at the same time a public trust; the surplus revenue, after providing for current expenses and the interest of money borrowed, being in all cases applied to the reduction of the rates. The regulations of the Board are very complete, and the dock-charges, as well as the cost of delivering cargoes, moderate.

The laws framed pursuant to the Acts of Parliament for the government of these vast undertakings are embraced in one hundred and fifty-nine clauses. They state who shall be stevedores or porters employed to discharge or load vessels in the docks, and their duties; they regulate the conduct of masters and pilots, and the conditions alone on which ships will be allowed to enter the docks, inflicting penalties for violation of the rules; they fix the charges for the use of the graving-docks; stipulate the condition of the railway-trucks, and the length of the trains to be used within their docks, requiring great attention on the part of those persons who are in charge of them. No craft of any kind is allowed to ply for hire on the river without being registered at the Dock Office unless a steam or a ferry-boat; and these are, in some respects, under the control of the Board. Certain places are specially appro-*