[Inclosure.]
Mr. Richardson to
Mr. Fish.
Treasury Department,
Washington,
D. C., April 11, 1874.
(Received April 13.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, transmitting a copy of a note
from the British minister of the 6th instant, in which he expresses his
willingness to obtain the information requested in the letter from this
Department to you, dated the 31st ultimo, relative to the Canadian
coasting trade, and desires to be advised to what extent the right of
transportation of goods and passengers
[Page 554]
is granted to Canadian vessels plying between
ports of the United States where such transportation is not regulated by
articles 26, 27, or 30 of the treaty of Washington.
In reply, I will thank you to inform the minister that, if merchandise be
brought into the United States in a Canadian vessel from a foreign port
or place, and specified in the manifest, verified on oath or affirmation
before the collector at the first port of arrival as destined for other
districts in the United States, the importing vessel may proceed with
the same from district to district in order to the landing or delivery
thereof, the duties on such goods only as are landed or delivered in any
district to be paid or secured in such district. But before such vessel
can depart from the district in which she may first arrive for another
district, if the departure he not within forty-eight
hours after arrival, with merchandise brought in her from a
foreign port or place, duties not having been paid or secured, the
master or person in charge or command of such vessel is required to
obtain from the collector of the district a copy of the report and
manifest, certified by said collector, to which must be annexed a
certificate of the quantity and particulars of the goods landed within
his district, or of the goods remaining on board upon which duties are
to be paid or secured in some other district, and the master or person
having charge or command of such vessel is also required to give bond,
with one or more sureties, to the satisfaction of the collector of the
district in which the vessel may first arrive, in a sum equal to the
amount of the duties on the residue of the cargo, according to the
estimate of the collector.
Within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vessel in another
district, the master, or person in “command or charge thereof, is
required to report to the collector of such district, exhibiting the
certified copy of his first report, together with a certificate, as
aforesaid, from the collector of every district within which any of the
merchandise brought in such vessel shall have been landed, and the
quantity and particulars thereof. The bond given as above will be
canceled or discharged within six calendar months from the date thereof,
on the production of a certificate from the collector of the district
for which the goods have been reported, testifying the due entry and
delivery of the goods in such district, or upon due proof, to the
satisfaction of the collector by whom the bond was taken, that such
entry and delivery were prevented by some unavoidable accident or
casualty, and if the whole or any part of the goods shall not have been
lost, that the same have been duly entered and delivered in the United
States.
The master of any foreign vessel, laden or in ballast, arriving in the
waters of the United States from any foreign territory adjacent to the
northern, northeastern, and northwestern frontiers of the United States,
must report at the office of the collector or deputy collector of
customs nearest the point at which such vessel enters the waters of the
United States, and present her clearance and manifest; and such vessel
is not permitted to proceed farther inland, either to take or unload
cargo, without a special permit from such collector or deputy, to be
indorsed upon her clearance or manifest.
Ail vessels from any foreign contiguous territory, with cargo, must be
actually unladen at the port of first arrival in the United States, in
order to the inspection, entry, and appraisement of the cargo, if not
duly corded and sealed, or if an inspector be not placed on board at
such port at the request of the master, owner, or consignee of the
cargo, and at his expense, who shall accompany the vessel to the place
of destination, and if it be in another district, deliver her to the
collector thereof, or if it be in the same district, superintend the
unloading and inspect the cargo.
Trusting that the information given above may be sufficient to serve the
purpose of the minister’s inquiry.
I remain, &c.,
WM. A. RICHARDSON,
Secretary.
