Section 194
of Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1960
Section 194
Any person who sends or attempts to send by, or (not being the owner or master of the vessel) carries or attempts to carry in any vessel any dangerous goods without distinctly marking their nature, by means of a label which will indicate the danger to which they give rise, on the outside of the container or package containing the same and giving written notice of the nature of such goods and of the name and address of the sender or carrier thereof to the owner or master of the vessel at or before the time of sending the same to be shipped or taking the same on board the vessel, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of five thousand dollars:
Provided that, if such person shows that he was merely an agent in the shipment of any such goods and was not aware, and did not suspect and had no reason to suspect, that the
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goods shipped by him were dangerous goods, he shall be liable to a fine of five hundred dollars.
(2)
Any person who knowingly sends or attempts to send by or carries or attempts to carry in any vessel any such dangerous goods under a false description, or falsely describes the sender or carrier thereof, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of five thousand dollars.
(3)
The owner or master of any vessel may refuse to take on board any package or container which he suspects to contain such dangerous goods and may require it to be opened to ascertain the fact.
(4)
The Port Officer may refuse port clearance to any vessel if there are on board any such dangerous goods which are not stowed to his satisfaction.
(5)
Where any such dangerous goods have been sent or carried, or attempted to be sent or carried, on board any vessel without being marked as aforesaid, or without such notice having been given as aforesaid, and where any such goods have been sent or carried, or attempted to be sent or carried, under a false description, or the sender or carrier thereof has been falsely described, a Magistrate of the First Class may declare such goods and any package or receptacle in which they are contained to be forfeited, and they shall thereupon be disposed of as the Magistrate may direct.
(6)
The Magistrate shall have, and may exercise, the aforesaid powers of forfeiture and disposal notwithstanding that the owner of the goods may not have committed any offence under the provisions of this section relating to dangerous goods, and may not be before the
Magistrate, and may not have notice of the proceedings, and notwithstanding that there may be no evidence of the ownership of the goods, but the Magistrate may, in his discretion, require notice of such proceedings to be given to the owner or shipper of the goods before the same are forfeited.
(7)
The Governor in Council may make rules for regulating, in the interests of safety, the carriage of dangerous goods in any North Borneo ship or in any other vessel while such vessel is in any port in North Borneo or is, within North Borneo embarking or disembarking passengers or loading or discharging cargo or fuel; and any person who contravenes any rules made under this subsection shall be guilty of an offence and shall be
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liable to a fine of five thousand dollars, and the ship shall, for the purposes of Chapter 31, be deemed to be unsafe by way of improper loading.
(8)
The provisions of this section shall be deemed to be in addition to, and not in substitution for or in restraint of, any other written law relating to dangerous goods, but so that nothing in those provisions shall be deemed to authorize that any person is sued or prosecuted twice in the same matter.
Saving.