Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1907

Power to license pleasure boats.

94.(1) The local authority may grant upon such terms and conditions as they may think fit licences for pleasure boats and pleasure vessels to be let for hire or to be used for carrying passengers for hire, and to the boatmen or persons assisting in the charge or navigation of such boats and vessels, and may charge annual fees for such licences, for a boat or vessel a fee not exceeding the sum of five shillings, and for a boatman or other person a fee not exceeding the sum of one shilling.

(2) Any such licence may be granted for such period as the local authority may think fit, and may be suspended or revoked by the local authority whenever they shall deem such suspension or revocation to be necessary or desirable in the interests of the public: Provided that the existence of the power to suspend or revoke the licence shall be plainly set forth in the licence itself.

(3) No person shall let for hire any pleasure boat or pleasure vessel not so licensed or at any time during the suspension of the licence for the boat or vessel, nor shall any person carry or permit to be carried passengers for hire in any pleasure boat or vessel not so licensed or at any time during the suspension of the licence for the boat or vessel.

(4) A licence under this section shall not be required for any boat or vessel duly licensed by or under any regulations of the Board of Trade.

(5) No person shall carry or permit to be carried in any pleasure boat or pleasure vessel a greater number of passengers for hire than shall be specified in the licence applying to such boat or vessel, and every owner of any such boat or vessel shall, before permitting the same to be used for carrying passengers for hire, paint or cause to be painted, in letters and figures not less than one inch in height and three-quarters of an inch in breadth, on a conspicuous part of the said boat or vessel, his own name and also the number of persons which it is licensed to carry, in the form “Licensed to carry persons.”

(6) Every person who shall act in contravention of the provisions of this section shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

(7) Any person deeming himself aggrieved by the withholding, suspension, or revocation of any licence under the provisions of this section may appeal to a petty sessional court held after the expiration of two clear days after such withholding, suspension, or revocation: Provided that the person so aggrieved shall give twenty-four hours’ written notice of such appeal, and the ground thereof, to the clerk, and the court shall have power to make such order as they see fit and to award costs, such costs to be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.