A GREAT FISCAL PROBLEM SOLVED.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 191, 15 August 1888, Page 4

A GREAT FISCAL PROBLEM SOLVED.

We are assured the present session of Parliament will end in about a fortnight. The session has lasted somewhat longer than ordinary, and the expenses attending the meeting will be, consequently, somewhat heavier. A careful study of Hansard fails to impress upon the reader that the country has, reaped, or is likely to reap, any equivalent for the enormous outlay ; but still this session has not been absolutely barren, and future historians will, no doubt, chronicle the fact that it was during the session of 1888 a great fiscal problem was solved by the Premier, Sir Harry Atkinson. The problem was a knotty one, the question a national one, many .and serious and complicated were ' the interests involved, but our Treasurer was equal to the occasion, and the country again breathes freely. The difficulty was this: The Auckland umbrella-makers complained that there was only one width of the material they used for covering umbrellas admitted duty free, whereas they were compelled to use other widths. Mr Goldie championed the cause of umbrellas and saw tho Premier. What actually took pla^e at this important conference" we are unable to state precisely, but that tho great difliculty surrounding this abstruse problem was fully appreciated is evidenced by the fact that there was " considerable delay " in arriving at a decision. However, the decision came at length, to , the effect thab " the other widths will be admitted free, but only upon condition of its being cut up into shapes for umbrellas before leaving bond." . We do not know whether the Government in their wisdom have decreed the limit to the sizoof an umbrella; if not, there is nothing to prevent anyone taking out stufi'enough for a twelve or twenty foot umbrella and using it for ether purposes. Not long since all the leading Customs exDerts in Wellington and several leading merchants were engaged in examining microscopically a square inch of some cotton or linen fabric" to see if ib contained two hundred or two hundred and two threads to the square inch. We don't pretend to be absolutely accurate as to the number of the threads that allowed the fabric to enter free, but we are correct as to the fact that the dispute occurred, and it would be difficult to calculate the amount of time and money that was thrown away before a decision was arrived at, to. say nothing of the jeopardising of the immortal souls of the scrutineers, who, curiously enough, found under the miscroscope the exact number of threads, required either to pass it free or make it pay duty, according as they were biassed by customs or importing proclivities. Those happy citizens who have nothing to do with Customs entries and clearances can have only a very faint notion of the aggravating waste of time incurred in the process. The other day a gentleman who received a parcel of pamphlets from Australia, for which he had remitted the sum of 255, that being their cost price, had to obtain delivery of..them, and he pours outhis >yoe^ to us in a pathetic letter. On receiving notice of their arrival^ he went to the shipping office, and having paid the freight he was told he must get them cleared at the Customs. At the Customhouse he was informed that he must come prepared with iour clearance forms. Having purchased these for fourpence at a stationers, ho returned to the Customhouse and again essayed to secure his. property. Here he was severely cross-examined as to the actual value of the pamphlets. To this he could only reply that lie had remitted the money arid got a receipt. After some little, parley, this was eventually accepted as satisfactory ; he then had to fill up the four forms and interview the different officials to which each document belonged, and then having paid threepence to Her Majesty for duty 'he was allowed, to depart and claim his property, which he foundattheend of the wharf in Her Majesty's bond, and which was released on another payment of sixpence for storage. All this took from two hours and a half to three hours to negotiate, and, to say nothing of the waste of time incurred by the importing owner, one can hardly credit that threepence recouped Her Majesty for the time occupied by her officials in the important business of passing the parcel through. Thereis, beyond all question, an immense amount of hair-splitting and irritating redtapism about Our Customs laws and the method of their administration. ■ With respect to some lines of goods an importer can never be absolutely gure beforehand what the duty will be, and if the Commissioner of Customs, having solved the weighty problem about the umbrella silk with an amount of sagacity worthy of Solomon, would only bring his talents to bear on the wider problem of simplifying the Customs laws, he would earn tho blessings of the whole commercial community. *