Chap. 387.—An ACT requiring all oysters from the public rocks of the Common-
wealth to be inspected when loading on vessels; measurements, tax;
penalties. _ [(H B 410)

Approved March 24, 1926.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it
shall be unlawful for any person to buy and load on any boat or vessel
shell oysters in tub or bulk taken from the public oyster rocks of the
Commonwealth until he has first obtained for each cargo a permit
to do so from the oyster inspector from whose district the said cargo
is to be taken, or from the captain of one of the oyster police boats.
The said inspector or captain of police boat shall have the right at
all times to inspect the loading of the vessel as to quality and measure,
and for this inspection the owner or master of said vessel shall pay
to the inspector or police captain a tax of one cent per bushel on the
number of bushels in said cargo, which tax shall be paid, whether or
not said inspection be made.

2. That it shall be the duty of the oyster inspector, in whose
district a cargo of oysters is to be loaded to inspect, if he deems it
necessary, said oysters as they are taken on board of vessel and to
see that all measures are a full legal bushel of oysters; that any shuck-
ing stock taken does not have more than five per centum of shells or
small oysters, and when said vessel is loaded to collect the tax on
same and furnish the owner or master with a certificate showing
the number of bushels in said cargo and certifying over the signature
of the commission of fisheries, countersigned by the inspector or
police captain, that the tax on said cargo is paid, a copy of which said
certificate shall be sent to the office of the commission of fisheries.

3. That when at any time there is to be loaded in any one district
more than one vessel at the same time, the inspector is empowered to
appoint a sufficient number of deputy inspectors for the purposes
hereinbefore set forth; if he deems it necessary, and that on or before
the tenth of each month the inspector shall render a statement to the
office of the commission of fisheries, on blanks furnished by the com-
mission, showing the amounts collected, from what vessels collected,
and to whom paid. The inspector and his deputies shall be allowed
for their services ten per centum on all sums collected for tax.

4+. That all tax collected from the above inspection, after said
inspectors and deputies shall have received their ten per centum,
shall be forwarded by the inspectors to the auditor of public accounts,
monthly, with his other collections.

5. That the owner or master of any boat or vessel found buying
and carrying oysters from the public rocks of the Commonwealth
without a permit or certificate of inspection shall be fined not less than
twenty nor more than two hundred dollars.

6. That if it should develop that the compensation hereinbefore
allowed for inspectors and their deputies is not sufficient, such com-
pensation may be increased by the commission of fisheries, subject
to the direction and with the consent of the governor.

7. The net revenue derived from this act, or so much thereof as
is necessary, shall be used for bacteriological work as required by the
United States public health bureau for the safeguarding and protection
of the sea food industry of the State of Virginia, and shall be expended
under the direction of the governor.

8. On and after January first, nineteen hundred and twenty-
eight, the revenue derived from this act shall go into the general fund
and be appropriated out under the budget.

9. This act shall not be construed so as to delay the master of
any vessel in loading, nor to affect the shipment of shell oysters by
yarrel or otherwise under consignment from wharves or stations
served by common carriers.

10. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby
‘epealed.