The Comptroller-General of Customs has forwarded me the following memorandum for advice:

Section 217A of the Navigation Act reads as follows:

1. The Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to so much of the provisions of the Convention for Safety of Life at Sea as relates to Life-saving Appliances and Fire Protection, and for determining to which classes of ships those provisions shall apply, and in particular with respect to-
1. the internal arrangement and lighting of ships;
2. the manning of boats;
3. certificates of life-boatmen;
4. the prevention, detection, and extinction of fires on board ship;
5. the mustering and duties of the crew in case of accident; and
6. practice and drills with a view to action in emergencies.
2. The penalty for any breach of any regulation made under this section shall be-ta)
1. on the owner (if in fault), not exceeding One hundred pounds; and
2. on the master (if in fault), not exceeding Fifty pounds.
3. The power here conferred on the Governor-General to make regulations is apparently limited to such matters as are necessary or convenient to be prescribed 'for carrying out or giving effect to' the provisions of the Convention for Safety of Life at Sea relating to Life-saving Appliances, etc. The question has been raised as to whether this qualification has a limiting effect: whether, for example, the regulations under the section must be limited in their application to such ships only as come within the scope of the Convention mentioned, and whether those regulations in dealing, for example, with the manning of boats must be confined strictly to the provisions of the Convention in that regard. The Convention referred to, it may be explained, is limited in its general application to mechanically propelled vessels carrying more than twelve passengers owned by some state a party to the Convention, and which proceed to or from a port in another state, also a party to the Convention. If the application of the regulations under the section is to be similarly limited it will not be possible to apply them, as was contemplated when section 217A was framed, to ships trading within the limits of the Commonwealth.
4. I shall be glad if the Solicitor-General will be good enough to advise me in the matter.

The matters prescribed by regulations made in pursuance of section 217A of the Navigation Act 1912-1920 should not exceed the requirements laid down by 'so much of the provisions of the Convention for Safety of Life at Sea as relates to Life-saving Appliances and Fire Protection'.

The power conferred by the section is merely that of ensuring that the provisions of the Convention are given effect to.

The section authorises the making of regulations 'for determining to which classes of ships those provisions shall apply', but I do not think that these words authorise the application of the requirements of the Convention to vessels other than those to which the Convention is declared to relate.

I desire to point out, however, that Article II of the Convention declares that the merchant ships of any of the states of the High Contracting Parties which are mechanically propelled and which carry more than twelve passengers are subject to the provisions of the Convention. This does not mean, as suggested in paragraph (2) of the above memorandum, that the general application of the Convention is limited to state-owned vessels.

As the matter submitted is limited to the interpretation of section 217A, I have not dealt with the question whether power exists under some other section of the Act to make regulations prescribing additional requirements to those specified in the Convention or applying those requirements to ships other than those to which the Convention applies.

[Vol. 18, p. 251]