Ton

A measure of weight, somewhat differently fixed by different statutes, at two thousand pounds avoirdupois (see 1 N. Y. Rev. Stat. 609, § 35); or at twenty hundredweight, each hundredweight being one hundred and twelve pounds avoirdupois (see act of congress of Aug. 30, 1842, ch. 270, § 20). It is not true that tons in weight and tons in measurement are the same thing; that the expressions are simply different terms to indicate the same idea. A ton, in measurement, is forty cubic feet. A ton, in weight, is 2,240 pounds. A vessel having the capacity of 1,000 tons measurement has space to the extent of 40,000 cubic feet. This has nothing to do with the question of the weight she can carry.

Koberts v. Opdyke, 40 N. Y. 259.

The word ton, when used in a contract, without explanation, means 2,000 lbs. So held, under statute, in Many v. Beekman Iron Co., 9 Paige, 188.

Compare The Miantinomi, 3 Wall. Jr. 46.

Two thousand pounds avoirdupois constitute a ton, in Pennsylvania. Weaver v. sel for cargo; determined with remote reference to the actual carrying capacity, and by a mode of measurement prescribed by positive law. The tonnage of a vessel is by no means a synonymous term with the number of tons in weight which she may carry. It is an official mode of measurement of the cubical contents, the carrying capacity in bulk, of the ship, prescribed for the purpose of aiding the administration of the registration and shipping laws. Ships are classed and ranked, for many legal purposes, according to their tonnage, which is ascertained by an official measurement, which does not profess to give the carrying capacity by weight at all; and is not understood to give it by measurement accurately, but according to an artificial system. Still, all vessels of a nation being measured upon the same system, they can be rated by it with advantage, although it does not attain accuracy. The tonnage of a vessel is her internal cubical capacity, in tons.

Inman Steamship Co. V. Tinker, 94 U. S. 238.

Tonnage duty, or tax. A charge or pecuniary exaction, estimated at a given rate per ton. There seem to have been customs or imposts granted to the crown, in England, upon merchandise imported or exported, which were reckoned upon the tons in weight of the goods, and which bore the name of tonnage, or tunnage, duty. In America, the term is generally used for a tax imposed on vessels according to their cubical tonnage. The term tonnage duty, as used in the constitutional prohibition upon state laws imposing tonnage duties, describes a duty proportioned to the tonnage of the vessel; a certain rate on each ton. But it is not to be taken in this restricted sense in the constitutional provision. The general prohibition upon the states against levying duties on imports or exports would have been ineffectual if it had not been extended to duties on the ships which serve as the vehicles of conveyance. The prohibition extends to any duty on the ship, whether a fixed sum upon its whole tonnage, or a sum to be ascertained by comparing the amount of tonnage with the rate of duty.

Steamsliip Co. v. Portwardens, 6 Wall. 31.

A tonnage duty is a duty imposed on vessels in proportion to tiieir capacity. The vital principle of a tonnage duty is either as to the capacity to carry or the actual weight of the thing itself.

Inman Steamship Co. v. Tinker, 94 U. S. 238.

A tonnage tax is defined to be a duty levied on a vessel according to the tonnage or capacity. It is a tax upon the boat as an instrument of navigation, and not a tax upon the property of a citizen of the state.

The North Cape, 0 Biss. 505.

The duty imposed by the ordinance of the city council of Charleston, which provides that steam-packets and other vessels trading steadily and performing regular successive voyages to that port from the adjoining states of North Carolina and Georgia, shall pay to the harbor-master one cent per ton once every three months, or every quarter, is a tonnage duty; and the ordinance is in violation of section 10, article 1, of the constitution of the United States, by which it is ordained that " no state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty of tonnage." Alexander v. Wilmington, &c.

E. R. Co., 3 Strobh. 594.

A city ordinance imposing a wharfage tax each trip upon every boat or vessel landing or anchoring at or in front of the landing or wharf of the city, measured by the capacity of the boat or vessel, not to exceed $20 a trip, is void; because in conflict with that clause of the constitution of the United States which forbids a state to levy any duty of tonnage without the consent of congress. North-western, &c.

Co. v. City of St. Paul, 3 Dill. 454.

Although a city cannot levy a tax in the nature of a tonnage duty, or by way of discrimination, upon vessels or commerce, yet a city, under legislative authority, or a riparian owner as such, may charge reasonable compensation for the use of expensive and artificial conveniences which a vessel may use at its option; there being ample space elsewhere for it to land within the harbor where no artificial or expensive improvements have been made.

North-western Union Packet Co. v. City of St. Louis, 23 Int. Rev. Eec. 33.

A municipal corporation having, by its charter, an exclusive right to make wharves on the banks of a navigable river upon which it is situated, collect wharfage, and regulate wharfage rates, can, consistently with the constitution of the United States, charge and collect from the owner of enrolled and licensed steamboats, which moor and land at a wharf constructed by it, wharfage proportioned to their tonnage.

Packet Co. v. Keokuk, 95 U. S. 80.

Wharfage fees thus levied do not constitute a tax, but are to be regarded simply as compensation exacted for the use of the wharves. An ordinance requiring the payment of wharfage fees is not unconstitutional, even though it exacts payment from vessels when they are moored at places w.here no wharves have been provided. The fact that the wharfage fee is graduated ing of the constitution of the United States forbidding the levying of such an impost.

Keokuk v. Keokuk Packet Co., 45 Iowa, 196.