The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,1853.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 4121, 19 September 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,1853.

For the cause that locks assistanco, For tho wrong that needs resistance, For tho future in tho distanco, And tho good that we can do.

Among tho most interesting of Mr Griffin's

recent consular reports is ono on American woodenware in New Zealand, in which tho writer reviews not only tho trado carried on in American woodonwaro, but also gives some facts about the timber industry of Auckland. Tho imports of American woodonwaro increased from £5,000 in ISSO to £11,000 in 1881, and wo observe from the recently - issued statistics that tho imports in 18S3 amounted to £14,000, showing that tho trado is a growing one, notwithstanding tho increasing competition of our own mills. These figures are exclusive of wooden articles in which iron is combined, such as window-sashes, furniture, &c. If included, theso would bring up the total value of the imports in ISSI to i' 124,000. What is specially described as woodenware comprises such articles as tubs, pails, washboards, oars, axe-handles, clothespins, rolling-pins, butter churns, cheese moulds, shafts! felloes, rollers, croquet sots, iftc. Tho branches of woodenware in which the local mills compoto consist, according to Mr Griffin, in doors, sashes, mouldings, coopers' work, brooms, and washboards. Of the latter article the report says : " Tho washboards turned out at the Auckland Timber Company aro tho best made in the colony, and compare favourably with those imported from America. Tho other factories display very little art in work of this kind. Instead of dovetailing the pieces, as in America, they fasten them with nails, which detracts not only from their appearances but durability."

Tho report, while claiming a virtual supremacy for American woodenware in NewZealand, and affirming that no country possesses either the requisite machinery or skilled labour to hold its own against that country, credits New Zealand with having developed "tho largest timber industry in the Southern Hemisphere." It also gives statistics of the Auckland timber trado, which, we think, go to Drove pretty conclusively that New Zealand not only can compote with America in wooden manufactures, but is doing so very successfully already. The annual output of sawn timber in the Province of Auckland, Mr Griffin states at 70,000,000 feet, in addition to 2,000,000 feet of planed timber, *0,500 doors, and about £15,000 worth of other wood products. It is notorious that Auckland-made doors and sashes have pushed American doors and sashes completely out of this market, and arc pressing them very hard in all parts of Australasia. That Auckland produces £15,000 worth of other kinds of woodenware (exceeding by £4,000 the entire value of the American woodenware imported into New Zealand in 1881), also seems to imply that all tho requisites of tho manufacture are here, and it only requires timo and energy to mako the colony not merely independent of our trans-Pacific cousins in this brunch

of industry, but a tromp^titor with —tern for thf. supply r-f other markets. Canada, •HbouVing ftndr.l* gl'Witcl' disabilities, '*■** proved that there is nothing 111 ■Hrt soil, tho climate, or the peopln, of tho 'gVCat Republic to scOin'." Ftl, thorn it monopoly 'of tho <Vwl .i.dnstry ; and our own mills, by purchasing the very latest and best kind's of American machinery, havn overcome one of the lirst obstacles* ' in thi. respect, indeed, they hold tut advantage over many of the Amciic-mi bulls from which out' supplies are ovigiiially drawn.

Mr I'riifiri alludes in the closing parnj.ri>p!i. of his report to a.subject about wliii h Micro has, rightly or wrongly, been a considerable amount of grumbling, and we cannot do belter than allow him to state the case in his own words, leaving those more directly concerned in the trade to say whether ids strictures are just 1—

"The cost of freight on woodonwuvc imported into New Zw.-b.iul from San Frani.'isco and Now Ynik appears to mv to be unusually high. The rates .of the Pacific Mail Sfc'imship Company on woodenware to Auckland arc lodols. perton measurement. The cost on the same goods by sailing* vessels from New York to New Zealand is abo very high, and ranges from T.oOdols. to S—'."idols, per ton. The prices of woodenware are a fraction higher in San Francisco than in the eastern cities, but some of the Auckland merchant:* prefer to pay the additional prices, and also the extra cost of freight in order to secure a quick delivery of their goods. Besides thoro is always considerable delay in the shipment of goods from New York.

"Tho merchants complain that the class of vessels which come here tiro generally very old, slow, wooden sailing vessels , totally unfit for nice cargo or such -.foods a» are easily damaged. Moreover, it ts said that theso ships do not .ohm direct to Auckland, but cICAv for some other New Zealand port. eithVii' Lyttelton, Dunediu, or Wellington, and that goods thus shipped i>ro fitlly six months in reaching their 'd'Cstination, on account of the slow voyage and tho delay at the other New Zealand ports. It is claimed that tho commission merchant at New York represents that tho ship, on discharging a portion of the cargo at the first port, can easily till up with New Zealand produce for tho second port. Tin; prospect of this second freight at high figures has tht; vli'eet of inducing the master to charter his vessel at a low -fate for tho round trip, and the shipping agent compels him to sign bills of lading at any price tho agent may choose to charge. The owner of the vessel probably gets about ti.2sdols. per ton on the cargo, and tho agont or charterer from S.Todols. to lodols. por ton, thus gaining a profit of about ."il) per cent. Tho merchant here does not object, to tho profit made by tho charterer, but he dues object to the long and unnecessary delay iv the transportation ol his goods. Tho loss falls principally on the merchant at lho second port.

" l am fully conscious of the value of the services of the commission man to tlio importer, but nt the same time I cannot help believing, that trado upon a largo scale should bo conducted independently of them. The defence made by the shipping agents is to the effect that the Auckland merchants do not order goods enough to till a ship, and they aro compelled to call at a second port; but oven suppose this to bo the case, surely small vessels could very easily bo chartered for the purpose.

" Somo of the New York exporters complain that they aro in tho hands of tho shipping agents, and that if they send goods by outside vessols the shipping agents will refuse in the futuro to carry freight for them. It is always dillieult to get at tho exact truth in cases of this kind, but the fact nevertheless remains that tho groat bulk of American merchandise, and especially line ironmongery, reaches this port by way of London and Sydney."

Colonists, living tinder better and freer conditions, happily escapo much of'the misery, immorality, and crime which appear to be invariable concomitants of dense populations in older countries. Still, as new countries grow, and tho gregarious in-

stincts of our race tend to create now con

trea of closely-packed human beings, the same icsults may be expected to follow

with unerring sequence. Thus in tho United States, where the Eastern cities aro as closely-built as those of Kurope, tho vices and crimes of tho Old World are reproduced, and form a sickening fester on society. So will wo find il. in these fair Australasian realms ; so, indeed, do wo already find it, though in very modified degree. Foremost among tho social problems which confront us hero is the question of prostitution, with its allied Ovils—to combat ono of which tho questionable and somewhat, dangerous legislation of the Contagious Diseases Act has been brought into operation. That Act seems very liko a compromise with vice, and a protection tn the vicious, and can do no good unless, in conjunction with tho enforcement of its provisions, vigorous efforts arc made for the reclamation of fallen women. Mote important still is the necessity for protecting young girls from the contamination of brothels and tho Miles of procuresses. A writer in a recent number of the "Contemporary Review "says on this point :—

"First, let the law protect tho young nf both sexes up to the legal age of majority from all attempts to lead them into .1 dissolute life. In most continental countries the corruption of minors is an indictable offence. The English penal code recognizes this principle in property ; it is a felony to abduct an heiress up to twenty-one, and a young man's debts, except for bare necessaries, aro null and void till ho is of ago ; but, as usual, our English law leaves tho infinitely moro precious moral personality unprotected. Thero is no practical protection at any age for an English child from the trade of vice. An unruly child of fifteen or sixteen, or oven younger, quarrels with her mother, or with her employer, nnd runs off in a fit of temper. Kvon if sho leaves her parents' roof, it cannot bo brought under the law against abduction. No one abducts her; the child abducts herself. Yet the keeper of tho lowest den of infamy can harbour that child for an infamous purpose, and he or she commits no indictabe offence. It is no wondor, therefore, that tho open profligacy of the young forms tho very gravest feature of our large towns. Thankful as wo aro for the honest effort to deal with this monstrous anomaly in English law, shown by Lord Koscbery's Bill, wc cannot but regret the extromo inadequacy of its provisions,or that the Legislature should refuse to extend legal protection from even tho trade of vice to the most dangerous ago of a girl's life, the age of sixteen—tho tige when, as the medical faculty are agreed, a girl is least morally responsible, and most liable to sexual extravagances,and when wo can statistically prove that tho greatest number of those who go wrong aro led astray. The country will not rest till tho legal protection from tho trade of vice is extended to twenty-one."

The need for some protective legislation in this colony -will bo apparent when the earlier maturity of our young women is considered, and when it is borne in mind that our laws are in the same laxstate as those of England, so far as authority over minors is concerned. In Auckland there have been in the past several painful casos of girls deserting the parental roof and falling easy victims to tho detestable vice of prostitution, simply because their parents had no power to compel their return. The law, which allows this glaring cvil —which will not givo a parent power to save a child from an ovil worso than death—is inconsistent enough to step in and forbid any one to givo food or lodging to the fallen one, aud will even prosecute a mother who extends shelter to her child, on I he charge of harbouring ;i prostitute. We hope to find that New Zealand will not be behindhand in amending her law in the direction of giving authority to parents over minors, and thus conferring power to prevent degradation, which is a moro humane, more reasonable, and moro Christian course than efforts at reclamation, no matter how laudable the latter may be.