NAPIER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6987, 16 October 1884, Page 4

NAPIER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

A. meeting of the Napier Chamber of Commerce was. held yesterday, in the rooms of the Chamber, Browning-street. Present— Mr J. W. Neal (chairman), J. G. Kinross, T. Tanner, J. J. Torre, W. T. Irvine, and E. Lyndon. .CORRESPONDENCE. The following correspondence waa read :— From Mr J. D. Ormond, M.H.R., in reference to a request of the Chamber that the Government would cause the Napier railway time-table to be made more suitable for public requirements than at present. Mr Ormond stated that he had communicated with the Minister for Public Works, urging that the morning and evening trains up and down should be run more as passenger trains than at present, with an intermediate train for goods traffic, and that the Minister had promised to give tli9 matter his earliest attention. — The Chairman suggested that consideration of the letter should be held over till it was decided by the committee what revised time-table would'be.st suit the district.^-Mr Tanner said he. had seen Mr Macdonald, and he Btated, that a revised time-table was now being prepared. Mr Macdonald had urged upon Mr Maxwell that an evening train for Hastings should be put on, to reach .there, at half r past 5 o'clock, and to return to Napier at 10 o'clock the next morning. -After some further discussion the chairman waa authorised to convene a meeting of the committee as soon as the new time-table was received. From Captain Russell, M.H.R., stating that he had seen', the general railway manager in reference to the alteration of the times of the country mail train, as desired by the Chamber^ — Received. Frond the Railway Department, acknowledging the receipt of a letter on the same question from the Chamber. From' the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce; enclosing copy of a resolution passed by that body deprecating protective duties, and in favor of free trade. — Mr' Kinross suggested that as the question raised in '■ the resolution had been dealt with by the Chambers of Commerce Conference that recently Bat at Wellington, there was no necessity for a further discussion.— Suggestion adopted, and letter received. ' .- j: . ..: From the Department of Trades and Customs, Wellington, enclosing five copies of a circular of instructions recently forward, '1. froinj the department to Collectors of Customs at the various ports. The circular contained an instruction to all collectors, after the first of January next, to collect duty on twine imported for use with reaper and binder machines, the article in questibri being now admitted . free.— The letter was received, Mr JNeal

remarking that this was another of the j anomalies of the Customs tariff, which admitted several other varieties of twine duty free. THE lATE CONFERENCE. Mr Kinross made a ehorfc statement of the work done at the Conference of Chambers of Commerce delegates that recently sat at Wellington, at which Messrs Kinross and Tanner represented the Napier Chamber. On the motion of Mr Irvine, seconded by Mr Lyndon, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Messrs Kinross and Tanner for their efforts as delegates, ana to Mr Kinross for his statement of what had been done. Mr Kinross, in acknowledging the vote, stated that a detailed report of the Conference proceedings would be presented to the Chamber as soon as it could be prepared by the secretary to the Conference. passing entries. The Chairman drew the attention of members to a circular letter drawn v p by Mr Irvine, and largely Bigned by Napier merchants, including several members of the Chamber. The circular drew attention to tho great difficulties caused to shippers by the different regulations in force respecting passing entries of goods arriving by direct steamer, and consignments arriving at other ports in sailing vessels and afterwards transhipped to Napier. The circular asked that consignments by sailing vessels might be passed in one lot, instead of compelling Napier importers to wait for the passing of four or five different lots of the same consignment," a practice that involved much loss of time and an appreciable loss of money. Mr Tanner was of opinion that the difficulty was one due to the lack of harbor accommodation at Napier, and would not be got over until the projected harbor was constructed. The Chairman admitted that the difficulty was due to the cause stated by Mr Tanner, but urged that it would be well to minimise the evil as suggested by Mr Irvine. At present every importer was occasionally compelled to waste time and money by keeping parts of a consignment in the Customs shed until the whole of the lots were landed, and money bad to be paid for each of the lots so kept waiting in the shed. , After some further discussion, tlie circular was signed by those members who had not previously done bo, and it was resolved to forward a copy of it to the Collector at Napier, and to write to the Commissioner of Customs at Wellington on the matter. The committee then adjourned.

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