The Bill I am humbly promoting, and which has been before Parliament during the last two sessions, supported by Lord Aberdare, Earl Stanhope, Earl Shaftesbury, the Marquis of Tweeddale, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Mr. Albert Pell, M.P., Mr. John Corbett, M.P., Mr. Thos. Salt, M.P., Mr. Thos. Burt, M.P., and Mr. H. Broadhurst, M.P., provides a remedy for these faulty places. 1. I would do away with the permissive features of the Act of 1872. 2. Fines to be inflicted for breaches of the regulations, as well as for breaches of the Act. 3. I give under the Act the local registration authorities part of the registration fees. I propose that the annual registration fee should be 5s. for each boat, one half of this amount to go to the Government, and the other half to the local authorities. 4. The registration of the boats to be annual. This will be a very simple and inexpensive affair, no matter in what registration district the boat happens to be at the time of the renewal. 5. I give under the Bill the Local Government Board power to appoint one, two, or more officials to visit the canals in various parts of the country, and to see to the proper enforcement of the Act, and to report annually to Parliament. 6. I propose that the inspectors should have power to enter a canal boat at any “reasonable hour.” 7. No child shall be employed on a canal boat unless such child shall have passed the “third standard.” 8. I propose that children, whom the regulations allow to live in the cabins, should have a free educational pass book, which would enable them to attend any day school while the boats are being loaded and unloaded. 9. No child under the age of sixteen to work on a canal boat on Sundays. 10. All boats upon which there is accommodation for cooking or sleeping to be deemed to be used as dwellings. 11. All fines to be paid over to those authorities who enforce the Act.
When the Canal Boats Act of 1877 is amended in accordance with the lines I have laid down in the Bill, the stigma that has been resting upon the country and our canal population, numbering nearly 100,000 men, women, and children, during the last 125 years, will be in an easy way for removal, without inconvenience or costing the country one farthing, and the boatowners and captains not more than 2s. 6d. each per annum.