This Act may be cited as the Harbours Amendment Act, 1908, and shall form part of and be read together with the Harbours Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section five of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

The pilotage-exemption certificates referred to in section sixty-eight of the principal Act shall apply only to colonial trading and home-trade ships.

This section shall have effect as from the date of the coming into operation of the principal Act.

In the case of any colonial trading or home-trade ship the master or mate of which holds a pilotage-exemption certificate entitling him to pilot that ship, the owner or master of the ship shall, unless a pilot is employed, be entitled, after the ship has entered the port in respect of which the certificate was issued, and on payment of one full rate of pilotage in and out of that port in addition to the inward rate payable on such entry, to receive from the officer receiving the payment a certificate (hereinafter called the pilotage-rates exemption certificate) exempting that ship from payment of pilotage rates for the period of twelve months computed from the date of such entry, unless a pilot is employed.

The date of entry shall be specified in the pilotage-rates exemption certificate, and the exemption from pilotage rates may be renewed for twelve months by the payment of one full rate of pilotage in and out on or before the date of expiration of the period for which the certificate was issued, and so on from year to year thereafter.

If a ship in respect of which a pilotage-rates exemption certificate has been issued enters a port after the expiry of the exemption period, that ship shall not be deemed exempt from pilotage, but on payment of one full rate of pilotage in and out, in addition to the inward rate payable in respect of such ship, the ship shall be entitled to a new certificate exempting her from pilotage for the period of twelve months from the date of such re-entry.

Every exemption voucher which is in force under section seventy-five of the principal Act at the passing of this Act shall continue during the period for which that voucher was issued to have the same effect as if this section had not been passed, and on or before the expiry of that period every such voucher may, on payment of one full rate of pilotage in and out, be exchanged for a pilotage-rates exemption certificate under this section for a period of twelve months from the expiry of the said voucher.

This section is in substitution for section seventy-five of the principal Act, which section is hereby accordingly repealed.

All pilotage rates leviable under the principal Act shall be paid by the master of the ship for which the same are payable to the Collector of Customs of the port if there is no Harbour Board for the port, but if there is a Harbour Board such rates shall be paid to the Board.

This section, as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and nine, shall be in substitution for section one hundred and sixty-eight of the principal Act, which section is hereby repealed accordingly.

Harbour Boards are empowered to regulate and control the traffic and navigation of harbours under their control in such manner as they deem necessary for the safety of life and property on days on which regattas or boat-races are held in the harbour:

Provided that nothing herein shall be construed so as to affect any general power possessed by Harbour Boards.

In the case of any port for which there is no Harbour Board, the powers conferred by the last preceding subsection on Harbour Boards may be exercised by the Minister or by some person appointed by the Minister for the purpose.

Every person who commits a breach of any regulation or order made under this section is liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.