Appendix B — Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Aberdare
The following remarks are the substance of a letter I sent to the Right Hon. Earl Aberdare—who has been a friend to the cause I have in hand, and more than kind to myself—on May 24, 1882, in reply to some questions his lordship put to me with reference to some of the details of my plans for properly carrying out the Canal Boats Act of 1877; and as they will apply with equal force to the carrying out of my gipsy plans when my Canal Amending Bill is passed, I deem it right that they should find a place here.
“At the present time there will be, at a rough calculation, nearly 10,000 boats registered. In 1879 there were over 5,000 boats registered, and the number, owing principally to my continued agitation, has kept increasing. Supposing that there are only 10,000 boats registered—with the prospect of another 5,000—this would, if the registration certificates were stamped with a half-crown stamp, as I suggest to be paid by the boatowner, produce an annual amount of £1,250, which would be quite sufficient to cover the expenses of Government supervision, inquiries, and annual reports.
“More than half of the hundred registration authorities throughout the country do not pay any increased salaries to the local registration officers for registering the boats, and the little inspection that has been done by them.
“In some instances £10 per annum has been added to the salaries of the officers. In some cases more than £10, and in other cases less than £10 has been added. In one instance the amount of £1 per boat has been given to the medical officer of health for registering the boats.
“The officers, in my humble opinion, best qualified to see to the inspection and registration of the boats under the Amending Bill are the sanitary officers.
“I do not propose, nor do I think that it would be wise under present circumstances, to establish an army of Government inspectors, with all their attendant charges upon the Treasury. One or two Government officials supervising the carrying out of the act and making occasional and unexpected visits to various canal centres or otherwise, and also advising and working with the local registration officers in the carrying out of the Act and the regulations of the Local Government Board, is what I would recommend, at any rate in the first instance. Of course time and practice, as with other Acts, would develop the weak and faulty places—if there be any—of the measure.
“To meet the expenses of the registration and increased salaries of local inspectors, I propose that the master or captain of each boat shall pay to the local registration authorities an annual sum of two shillings and sixpence at the time when the annual certificate of registration is taken out; this would bring the total amount of the registration to the same as that now charged, viz., five shillings, for the first year, and the only registration that has taken place. No plan will be a success unless the certificate of registration be renewed annually. When the Act of 1877 came into operation it was expected by the boatowners and boatmen that there was to be an annual payment and registration fee, and I did not hear of any objection to it worth naming.
“After the first registration, and with the assistance of the Government inspectors or supervisors, the carrying out of the Act of 1877 and this Act will not be so troublesome and expensive a matter as is supposed.
“I do not think that, after a year or two, when the Act has got into working order, there will be any difficulty in the registration authorities being able to obtain an annual registration fee of five shillings, apart from the stamped certificates, which would make a total of seven shillings and sixpence for each boat.” [With the payment of this amount, supposing that the canal children are receiving a free education, as I suggest they should, the boatmen with children of school age will be more than £1 per annum gainers.] “Even this amount is but a trifle when it is considered that boatmen and boatowners use the resources of the country, and neither pay rates nor taxes for their boats floating upon our rivers and canals. Or if it was advisable to raise the local registration fee from that which I now propose, viz., half a crown, to five shillings, it could be done without increasing the registration fee to be paid by the boatmen to the registration authority by dropping the half-crown stamped certificate and the Government paying for the expenses of Government supervision and inspection out of the Imperial Treasury, which, I am told, they are unwilling to do.
“To illustrate my meaning more clearly with reference to the registration fee I am now recommending, I will take the case of Leeds as a sample. Up to 1879 the local inspector at Leeds had registered two hundred canal boats at five shillings each, producing the sum of £50 to meet the expenses of the local inspection and registration, and not one farthing in either fines or fees has been received by the registration authority at Leeds from the boatowners or boatmen since for the inspection and registration. Whatever little time has been devoted by the local authorities to the carrying out of the Act, it has been done at the cost of the ratepayers at Leeds. According to the plan I propose there will be, under the Amending Bill, a yearly income from two hundred registered boats of £25 to the Leeds registration authorities, and £25 per annum to the Government for the two hundred stamped certificates.
“I may add that the annual registration fee is fixed by the Local Government Board in their regulations, and can, without a fresh Act of Parliament, be altered at any time.
“Another source of income to the local authorities, provided for under the Bill, and which would help to make the Act of 1877 and this Act thoroughly successful, will be that derived from the fines, which, under the Act of 1877, have hitherto been handed over to the county funds instead of to those who have been at the expense and trouble of enforcing the Act. The fines and fees will, I think, cover the whole of the expenses without taking any money from the local rates, or drawing upon the Imperial Treasury to any extent worth naming.
“In course of time, as the Act worked out, it might be desirable that the captain or master of the boat should have a certificate of qualification or registration, to be renewed annually. The better class of boatmen would be pleased with this arrangement, and it would have a beneficial effect upon the boatmen generally, as in the case of captains of vessels, &c.
“Objection might be taken to the yearly registration of canal boats. Some might say that registration every three years would be quite sufficient. The yearly registration, if carried out upon a plan set forth in my ‘Canal Adventures by Moonlight,’ page 219, would be a very much simpler affair than even in every three years.
“Canal boats often change hands both as regards ownership and mastership. To register the boats every three years it would be necessary, in order to keep a clue of the boats, to have clerks and a set of books wherein to enter the frequent changes. This plan in many cases would be a troublesome matter.
“Boats registered every year would be easily kept in view. The annual registration would bring both the boatowner and captain to the front.
“Owing to the children living in the boats being under the school authorities at which place the boats are registered as belonging to, it might be desirable, for many reasons, that the place of registration should be changed. I will take a case to explain my meaning. Suppose a boat is registered at Liverpool for three years; the children living in the boat, according to the Act of 1877, belong to Liverpool the length of time for which the boat is registered. But suppose in the course of a few months after the boat has been registered for three years the captain or master comes to work his boat near London. Naturally the captain would like to have his home and family near London and his children going to school near him. If the boat was registered at Liverpool for three years he could not remove his family till the time of registration was expired.
“The yearly registration would simplify the whole thing, and to a great extent overcomes cases of the above kind. With a change of the registration authority, a change of the school authority to which the boat children belong takes place as an outcome of the registration of the boats.
“GEORGE SMITH, of Coalville.
“December 31, 1882.”