Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-24 00:00:00

RECORDING OF MORTGAGES ON SHIPS.

itFtln the beginning of the last month Messrs. R. & S.
Neill, writere, addressed a letter on this subject to the
Secretary of the B )ard of Trade, in which they stated
that by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, section 67, it is
enacted that " every such mortgage shall be recorded by
the registrar, in the order cf time in which the same is .
produced to him for that purpose ; and the registrar shall,
by memorandum ender his hand, notify on his iosernment
of morteags tir:t the same has been recorded by him,
stating the date and hour of an :h record.' Taey alio
stated that they believed the practice under this provision
to be that when a mortgage was produced to the registrar,
the date and hour of such production was not marked, and
supposing, from a press of other business, the mortgage
might remain unrecorded for a day or tw a. the date of re-
cordiog marked on the mortgage was the date that it had
been entered in the register. Whether this,was in accor-
dance with the Registrar Geiera''s instructions or not
Messrs. Neill could not say ; bat they conceived that this
practice might be productive of serious loss to a mortgagee.
'The 72nd section provides that "no registered mortgage
of any ship or of any share therein shall be affected by
any acts of bankruptcy, committed by the mor tgager af,er
the date of the record of such mortgage ;" but it is plain
f e)m this that if the act of bankrupt .y has taken place
subsequent to the production of the mortgage to the
registrar, but prior to the day of recording, the mortgage
would be worthless. They also stater, that frotn what had
been mentioned, "the importance of the licur of production
being recognised, and held as the hour oc recording must
be apparent ;" and they had therefore respectfully to
suggest that instructions to this effect be forthwith issued
to the various registrars. If this were done the evil of
the present system would be avoided. They mentioned
that in Scotland, where a ,sys'em of registration of hand-
rights, and securities, has been long in operation, the re-
gistrar is obliged to keep a minute book, in which he enters
all instruments produced to him to be recorded, and he
must express in the minute book the day and hour when
the instruments have been presented to him, and the
statute ordains the registration to be made exactly conform
to the order of the minute book, the date of entry in it
being held as the date of recording. It appeared to them
that as bills of sale and mortgages of vessels could not be
recorded at the moment of presentment to the rPgistrar,
and as an act of bankruptcy might intervene between the
time of presentment and that of the actual recording, some
such provision as that.they had alluded to, and as exists
in Scotland in the case of Lands Rights, should at once be
made for the rtAording of bills of rale and mortg ages.
Unless this were done, sooner or liver, serious results
wont I ensue from the present practice'
To this communication an answer was received from the
Secretary tithe Board of Trade. saying that the Lords of
the Committee of Privy Council for Trade had written to
the Commissioners of H. M. Customs on the subject. And
a few days ago a letter was received from the Secretary of
the Board of Trade, in which he stated that —" My Lords
have requested the Commissioners of the Customs to issue
instructions to all registrars of shipping to record the date
and hour of the pr. daction for registration of mortgage
deeds, under the 67th section of the ,Merchant Shipping
Act, 1i354, which is to be deemed the date and hour of the
registration of such deeds, notwithstanding the actual entry
in the registrar book is made subsequently."—Greenock
7ileyraph.

THE FARL or SCARB)ROUGH.—We (Not i yham Journal)
regret to announce the seri us indisposition of the Earl of
Scarborough. It appears that in August his lordship,
whilst out shooting on the moors of Longshaw, net with
an accident in attempting to cross a ditch, falling back-
wards and injuring the spine to such an extent that he is
obliged to give up all field sports. Several of hs lord-
ship's beat hunter's have already been disposed of, and we
understand the remainder will be sold by auction.