476.—(1) Where a stipendiary magistrate is in any place a member of the local marine board, a formal investigation at that place into a shipping casualty shall, whenever he happens to be present, be held before that stipendiary magistrate.

(2) There shall be paid out of the Mercantile Marine Fund to the stipendiary magistrate, if he is not remunerated out of money provided by Parliament under this Act, such remuneration by way of an annual increase of salary, or otherwise, as a Secretary of State, with the consent of the Board of Trade, may direct.