Ships and shipping: Ocean and coastwise vessels doing local business for hire plying in Alaskan waters, one dollar per ton per annum on net tonnage, customhouse measurement, of each vessel. (Mar. 3, 1899, sec. 460.)

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to charge and fix the rates of dockage and wharfage to be paid by any private vessel or person allowed to use the wharf at Sitka, the said receipts to be deposited with the Treasurer of the United States as a miscellaneous receipt derived from Government property; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall direct, by regulation or otherwise, by whom said wharfage and dockage receipts shall be collected. (June 11, 1896.) Transfer of cargo. [See p. 167.]

Yukon and Stickine River Trade.

Whenever merchandise is imported into the United States by sea for immediate exportation to a foreign port by sea, or by a river, the right to ascend or descend which for the purposes of commerce is secured by treaty to the citizens of the United States and the subjects of a foreign power, the Secretary of Commerce is hereby authorized to prescribe regulations for the transshipment and transportation of such merchandise. (Feb. 17, 1898, sec. 3.)

Procedure.

In all cases of fine, penalty, or forfeiture, embraced in the Act approved March three, seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, chapter thirteen [R. S. 5292], or mentioned in any Act in addition to or amendatory of such Act, that have occurred or may occur in the collection district of Alaska, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized, if in his opinion the fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without willful negligence or intention of fraud, to ascertain the facts in such manner and under such regulations as he may deem proper without regard to the provisions of the Act above referred to, and upon the facts so to be ascertained he may exercise all the power of remission conferred upon him by that Act, as fully as he might have done had such facts been ascertained under and according to the provisions of that Act. [Sec. 10, act of Feb. 14, 1903, authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to remit in certain cases above. R. S. 1958; Mar. 3, 1899, sec. 175.]

Pribilof, St. Paul, St. George, Walrus, and Otter Islands, and Sea Lion Rock.

The Pribilof Islands, including the islands of Saint Paul and Saint George, Walrus and Otter Islands, and Sea Lion Rock, in Alaska, are declared a special reservation for government purposes; and until otherwise provided by law it shall be unlawful for any person to land or remain on any of those islands, except through stress of weather or like unavoidable cause or by the authority of the Secretary of Commerce; and any person found on any of those islands contrary to the provisions hereof shall be summarily removed and shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both fine and imprisonment; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of Commerce to carry this section into effect. (R. S. 1959; Mar. 3, 1899, sec. 176; Apr. 21, 1910, sec. 5.)

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Transit in Bona,

Under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the privilege of entering goods, wares, and merchandise in bond or of placing them in bonded warehouses at any of the ports in the District of Alaska, and of withdrawing the same for exportation to any place in British Columbia or the Northwest Territory without payment of duty, is hereby granted to the Government of the Dominion of Canada and its citizens or citizens of the United States and to persons who have declared their intention to become such whenever and so long as it shall appear to the satisfaction of the President of the United States, who shall ascertain and declare the fact by proclamation, that corresponding privileges have been and are being granted by the Government of the Dominion of Canada in respect of goods, wares, and merchandise passing through the territory of the Dominion of Canada to any point in the District of Alaska from any point in said District. (May 14, 1898, sec. 14.) Crimes and Penalties in Alaska,

If any person shall willfully cast away, burn, sink, or otherwise destroy any ship, steamboat, or other vessel, with intent to injure or defraud any owner of such ship, steamboat, or other vessel, or with intent to injure or defraud the owner of any property laden on board the same, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than three or more than ten years. (Sec. 56.)

If any person shall lade, equip, or fit out, or assist in lading, equipping, or fitting out any ship, steamboat, or other vessel, with the intent that the same shall be willfully cast away, burnt, sunk, or otherwise destroyed, to injure or defraud any owner or insurer of said ship, steamboat, or other vessel, or of any property laden on board the same, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years. (Sec. 57.)

If the owner of any ship, steamboat, or other vessel, or of any property laden or pretended to be laden on board the same, or if any other person concerned or assisting in the fitting out or lading of any such ship, steamboat, or other vessel, shall make out or exhibit or cause to be made out or exhibited any false or fraudulent invoice, bill of lading, bill of parcels, or other false estimate of any property laden or pretended to be laden on board of such ship, steamboat, or other vessel, with intent to injure or defraud any insurer of such ship, steamboat, or other vessel or property, or any part thereof, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than six months nor more than three years. (Sec. 58.)

The collector and deputy collectors appointed for Alaska Territory, and any person authorized in writing by either of them, or by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have power to arrest persons and seize vessels and merchandise liable to fines, penalties, or forfeitures under this and the other laws extended over the Territory, and to keep and deliver the same to the marshal. (Mar. 3, 1899, sec. 174. Sec. 10 of the act of Feb. 14, 1903, bestows this power in certain cases on the Secretary of Commerce.)

Tariff and Tax Provisions, Virgin Islands.

On and after the passage of this Act there shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all articles coming into the United States or its possessions, from the West Indian Islands ceded to the United States by Denmark, the rates of duty and internal-revenue taxes which are required to be levied, collected, and paid upon like articles imported from foreign countries: Provided, That all articles, the growth or product of, or manufactured in such islands from materials the growth or product of such islands or of the United States, or of both, or which do not contain foreign materials to the value of more than twenty per centum of their total value, upon which no drawback of customs duties has been allowed therein, coming into the United States from such islands shall hereafter be admitted free of duty. (Sec. 3.)

Until Congress shall otherwise provide all laws now imposing taxes in the said West Indian Islands, including the customs laws and regulations, shall, in so far as compatible with the changed sovereignty and not otherwise herein provided, continue in force and effect, except that articles the growth, product, or manufacture of the United States shall be admitted there free of duty: Provided, That upon exportation of sugar to any foreign country, or the shipment thereof to the United States or any of its possessions, there shall be levied, collected, and paid thereon an export duty of $8 per ton of two thousand pounds irrespective of polariscope test, in lieu of any export tax now required by law. (Mar. 3, 1917, sec. 4.)

There shall be levied, collected, and paid in the United States, upon articles coming into the United States from the West Indian Islands acquired from Denmark (Virgin Islands) a tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United States upon like articles of domestic manufacture; such articles shipped from said islands to the United States shall be exempt from the payment of any tax imposed by the internal-revenue laws of said islands: Provided, That there shall be levied, collected, and paid in such islands, upon articles imported from the United States, a tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in said islands upon like articles there manufactured; and such articles going into such islands from the United States shall be exempt from payment of any tax imposed by the internal-revenue laws of the United States. (Feb. 24, 1919, sec. 1304.)

It shall be unlawful for any merchant ship or other vessel from any foreign port or place to enter any port of the United States except in accordance with the provisions of this act and with such rules and regulations of State and municipal health authorities as may be made in pursuance of, or consistent with, this act; and any such vessel which shall enter, or attempt to enter, a port of the United States in violation thereof shall forfeit to the United States a sum, to be awarded in the discretion of the court, not exceeding five thousand dollars, which shall be a lien upon said vessel, to be recovered by proceedings in the proper district court of the United States. In all such proceedings the United States district attorney for such district shall appear on behalf of the United States; and all such proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the rules and laws governing cases of seizure of vessels for violation of the revenue laws of the United States. (Feb. 15, 1893, sec. 1.)

Any vessel at any foreign port clearing for any port or place in the United States shall be required to obtain from the consul, viceconsul, or other consular officer of the United States at the port of departure, or from the medical officer where such officer has been detailed by the President for that purpose, a bill of health, in duplicate, in the form prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, setting forth the sanitary history and condition of said vessel, and that it has in all respects complied with the rules and regulations in such cases prescribed for securing the best sanitary condition of the said vessel, its cargo, passengers, and crew; and said consular or medical officer is required, before granting such duplicate bill of health, to be satisfied that the matters and things therein stated are true; and for his services in that behalf he shall be entitled to demand and receive such fees as shall by lawful regulation be allowed, to be accounted for as is required in other cases.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not apply to vessels operating exclusively in trade between foreign ports on or near the northern frontier of the United States and ports in the United States; but the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, when, in his discretion, it is expedient for the preservation of the public health, to establish regulations governing such vessels.

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The President, in his discretion, is authorized to detail any medical officer of the Government to serve in the office of the consul at any foreign port for the purpose of furnishing information and making the inspection and giving the bills of health hereinbefore mentioned. Any vessel clearing and sailing from any such port without such bill of health, and entering any port of the United States, shall forfeit to the United States not more than five thousand dollars, the amount to be determined by the court, which shall be a lien on the same, to be recovered by proceedings in the proper district court of the United States. In all such proceedings the United States district attorney for such district shall appear on behalf of the United States; and all such proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the rules and laws governing cases of seizure of vessels for violation of the revenue laws of the United States. The provisions of this section shall not apply to vessels plying between foreign ports on or near the frontiers of the United States and ports of the United States adjacent thereto; but the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, when, in his discretion, it is expedient for the preservation of the public health, to establish regulations governing such vessels. (Feb. 15, 1893, sec. 2; Aug. 18, 1894; Feb. 7, 1925.)

Any vessel sailing from any foreign port without the bill of health required by section 2 of this Act, and arriving within the limits of any collection district of the United States, and not entering or attempting to enter any port of the United States, shall be subject to such quarantine measures as shall be prescribed by regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the cost of such measures shall be a lien on said vessel, to be recovered by proceedings in the proper district court of the United States and in the manner set forth above as regards vessels from foreign ports without bills of health and entering any port of the United States. (Feb. 15, 1893, sec 11; Mar. 3, 1901.)

Quarantine Regulations.

The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service shall, immediately after this act takes effect, examine the quarantine regulations of all State and municipal boards of health, and shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, coöperate with and aid State and municipal boards of health in the execution and enforcement of the rules and regulations of such boards and in the execution and enforcement of the rules and regulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States from foreign countries, and into one State or Territory or the District of Columbia from another State or Territory or the District of Columbia, and all rules and regulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury shall operate uniformly and in no manner discriminate against any port or place; and at such ports and places within the United States as have no quarantine regulations under State or municipal authority, where such regulations are, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, necessary to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States from foreign countries, or into one State or Territory or the District of Columbia from another State or Territory or the District of Columbia, and at such ports and places within the United States where quarantine regulations exist