THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9817, 28 August 1897, Page 6

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

MEETING. The annual meeting of the of Commerce yesterday was a particularly hearty and inspiriting function In a year of records it was in many respects a record meeting. Following the example of the London Chamber the Committee this year tookaaevr departure in opening the proceedings with a luncheon, and the experiment appears to have met with very general approval. The large attendance, andthe fact that no less than thirty neff members have joined are proofs that the Chamber is infusod with a vigor** ous spirit of growth. It is also gratify* ing to us to be able to congratu« late the Chamber on the com«. pletion of a yeat of useful work. Most of the work done by such a bed; is silent and uuostentatious; niuoh of its labour, to quote from Lo«l Dufferin's recent description of the English Civil Service, "is done in an obscurity seldom penetrated by the t sunshine of popular appreciation." But oven the uninitiated public will appreciate and benefit by the service the Chamber has at length succeeded in accomplishing in railway reform. It was a lorig and dreary task ttot might well have exhausted the patience of most people; but the members of the Chamber yeac after year kept " pegging away" at oar local railway grievance, and, at length, a reluctant Government has given us a modicum of relief, and made substantial, though not adequate, reductions in the scale of charges. The efforts or the Chamber to secure other reforms! i A quick through train, morning ana evening to Port, and increased spew on the Bouthbridge and Springfield lines, have not yetbornefruit, Thereply of the Minister that a "quick tram to Lyttelton would " only" effect a saving of six or seven minutes m- ■ niits the contention while refusing Hw request; for a saving which "omy j amounts to about 26 per cent, of •»■ time now taken is well worthi fltrmng , for. We may be' sure it ie only* J question of time—though Government olocks go slowly—when m • energies of the Chamber, supported as they will be by the vigorous uttPtfr, tunities of Canterbury members mtae House, will bring about this refo«n also. And the general traveling public will then recognise "gj the Chamber of Commerce, w&titf devoting itself chiefly ftp «J ■ mercial matters, does not Wj' the interests of the general public Jβ well whan it sees its way to serve them. The movement set o» ioo» » procure the provision of a tW- mtD ? ship to enable us tp make SW«w» *J I our lads has placed the matter in «»» right hands, and we have every W fidenoe will be fruitful in V^ m results. . n i Mr. Roper's vell-matehaUad » D eloquent figures as to the pwgtf«" the colony since its foundation epg* for themselves. The expansion on* ivozen meat trade from lSfl***** valued at £19,829 in 1881, the year* its inception, to 1,134,281cwt., W» at £1,262,711 in 1895, is a strips testimony to colonial enterprise. * ; general export for Jane 3Oth-J69,841,959-istbe W* for five yeara pasfc, and it »». P**'2. larly gratifying to know, as the &» dent points out, that Canterbury W claim credit for the improvement, w the whole excess of exports over w> yea? is £161,682; the excess am Port Lyfctelton alone is £162,995. J* too, in wool: the excess -fat JL U whole colony over last year ««" bales; the increase from Cw» 4 bury alone is 6429 bales. Bm\ i need not again repeat the which Mr. Roper has so carefully J* j elaborately marshalled, as our «w c*n study them lo* themselves another column. # ©n*sr But wbifc complimenting Mr. «?

pen h\9 aM° address, we rnusfc dissent from 90 , Tie c conc l Uß,ons afc which L arrives. We do not for instance hftW v o w c ' x P * n tuo address 9 to the beneficial results of borrowing. Neither do wo think that ifc ia afc if desirable that the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce should lead an •gitation iv favour of the construction of more trunk linos, which, if aocegs ful, would commit tho colony to (i frosh policy of Public Works, involving the borrowing of a very sum of money, and place another almost unbearable burden upon tho s ho»Mor3 of tho taxpayers. Tho public debt is increasing at quite an alarming -jte even under a so-called " nonhorrowing " administration. What ffould I'^PP 6O were ow Zealand to enter upon an acknowledged policy of. Arrowing and squandering we do not wre to contemplate