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

On 10 August 1921, the Solicitor-General advised that:

If a vessel takes on board, at a port in a State or Territory of the Commonwealth, cargo to be landed at another port in the same State or Territory or in another State or Territory the taking on board and carriage of the cargo constitutes engaging in the coasting trade unless the cargo is carried on a through bill of lading.

A through bill of lading includes one which has been extended from the original port of destination to some further port if the cargo to which it relates had not been landed at the port to which the bill originally referred.

As stated in my minute of 22 July 1921, the question whether additional payment is required in respect of the extension of a through ticket does not affect the question dealt with in that minute.

2. An instruction to officers was accordingly issued intimating that a through bill of lading was to be read as including a bill of lading extended from the original port of destination, at the request of the consignee, to some further port, provided that the cargo to which it relates has not been landed at the port to which the bill originally referred.
3. The s.s. Borda, an unlicensed vessel, recently arrived at Fremantle from overseas. Included in the cargo for that port was a consignment of fish.
4. It was intimated to the Deputy Director of Navigation that it was desired to land portion only of the fish at Fremantle, and to carry on the remainder to another Australian port on an extended bill of lading.
5. The application to be allowed to carry the balance of the consignment to a further port was refused, the view being taken that an extended bill of lading properly covered the whole of the goods referred to therein, and not a portion only.
6. I shall be glad if the Secretary will kindly advise as to whether the proviso (b) to section 7 of the Navigation Act will permit of a portion only of a consignment carried on an unlicensed vessel and intended for an Australian port being conveyed in the same vessel to another Australian port on an extended bill of lading.

The proviso to section 7 provides, inter alia, that a ship shall not be deemed to be engaged in the coasting trade by reason of the fact that she carries cargo on a through bill of lading to or from a port beyond Australia and its Territories which cargo is not trans-shipped to or from any ship, trading exclusively in Australian waters, which is not licensed under the Act.

It is suggested that, where a bill of lading is extended as regards part only of the cargo to which it refers, the carriage of that cargo is not within the exception contained in the proviso above referred to.

I am of opinion, however, that there is no ground for this assumption. If the cargo is carried on a bill of lading which has been extended to a port other than that of first arrival in the Commonwealth the mere fact that part of the cargo to which the bill of lading originally referred has been landed, does not affect the position, as regards the coasting trade provisions of the Act, of the vessel in which the cargo is carried.

[Vol. 18, p. 463]