Merchant Shipping (Mercantile Marine Fund) Act, 1898

Abolition of Mercantile Marine Fund and constitution of General Lighthouse Fund.

57 & 58 Vict. c. 60.

1.(1)    .   .   .   .

(a) All sums accounting for and paid to the Mercantile Marine Fund, except the light dues or other sums mentioned in paragraph (i) of section six hundred and seventy-six of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, shall be paid into the Exchequer:

(b) All expenses charged on and payable out of the Mercantile Marine Fund, except the expenses relating to lighthouses, buoys, and beacons mentioned in paragraph (i) of section six hundred and seventy-seven of the same Act, and except also any expenses incurred by a general lighthouse authority under section five hundred and thirty-one of the same Act, shall, so far as they are not paid by any private person, be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament:

(c) The said excepted sums shall be accounted for and paid to, and the said excepted expenses shall be charged on and payable out of, a fund which shall be called the General Lighthouse Fund, and references in Part XI. and in sections five hundred and thirty-one and six hundred and seventy-nine of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, to the Mercantile Marine Fund shall be construed as references to the General Lighthouse Fund.

(2) The General Lighthouse Fund shall be applied to the payment of the expenses by this Act charged thereon, and to no other purpose whatever.

(3)    .   .   .   .    The liabilities of the Mercantile Marine Fund shall be discharged out of the General Lighthouse Fund.