CUSTOM HOUSE MISMANAGEMENT.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 222, 20 March 1895, Page 2

CUSTOM HOUSE MISMANAGEMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir,— l have a suggestion to make to } remedy an existing evil. When you read my nom de plume you will say I am venturesome, that there is a spice of cheek in my attempting to improve upon anything in a country which in most things is so far in advance of her neighbours, both near and far. But it does fail in one thing, and although seemingly a minor detail is one of vast importance to the travelling public. I refer to the arrangement of passengers' baggage in the Custom House on the arrival of the English boats at Wellington, and I hardly think that when my suggestion reaches the ears of the authorities in our Empire City, as assuredly it will through the medium of your widely circulating paper, it can fail to have the desired effect, and be carried out in a proper manner. How easy it wo aid be to adopt the same system here as we have in London and all tbe great continental cities, viz, one part of the wharf shed set apart entirely for passengers' baggage, with tbe letters oi the alphabet painted above an allotted space for each letter, and then as the luggage is discharged from the ship every package sbould be placed opposite the corresponding initial letter of the name of tbe passenger to whom the package belongs. This would simplify matters a little, and thereby save such a scene of dire confusion as I witnessed on the arrival of the Tainui last week. My own baggage I tound, after some trouble, mixed up with a lot of others' addressed to further norts. It was both opened and examined in the open air. Another passenger, less fortunate than myself, spent no less than one hour in collecting five packages, some of which were piled up with other baggage inside the shed and outside. And this was not an isolated case by any means. 1 can only say that if it had not been for the beautiful weather, and had it rained, the whole arrangement would have turned out nothing short of a disaster. Hoping to see aa improvement in this matter, I am, etc, A New Chum.