THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6815, 20 September 1883, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1888.

The Auckland Chamber of Commerce j is moving entirely within its legitimate province in taking action with regard to the scandalous seizure of the Gazelle. For nothing less than a scandal has that transaction been, reflecting alike On the law under which the vessel was seized, .the. Government putting the law ! in motion, and the public, in allowing such an iniquity to be perpetrated without protesting, and doing everything that public opinion can, to undo the wrong that has been done. Law cannot make right what is morally Wrong,. ■ and that 1 this forfeiture is a violation of the common principles of honesty,, is a fact that any man must admit whose conscience has not been twisted into obliquity of the moral sense. It is unnecessary" to refer in detail i to the circumstances of the seizure of ' the Gazelle ; they are familiar enough to our readers,. The vessel arrived from Newcastle, .and 011 board were some opened packages of tobacco. The law . of the Customs is," If a vessel has on board, or conveys tobacco in less, than whole' and complete packages of notless than sixty pounds weight, she shall be.; forfeited." The master on being summoned pleaded guilty to the negligence or crime, whatever it may have been, little thinking, doubtless, of the grave consequences involved ; paid the fine and costs, find found his ship the property of the New Zealand Govern-! ment. It is not pretended that the I owner of the vessel, residing in Sydney, either connived at, or had any knowledge. of the offence of open packages of tobacco; Even supposing that they had been opened with the wilful intention, of cheating the Customs, the master or his crew must have been the offender ; and to punish the owner of the vessel a thousand miles away by forfeiting his ship for a,n offence in which he had no complicity, is a palpable violation of justice that no law could make morally right. For what is the origin of legislation of this arbitrary class 1 It is the survival of the old tyrannical legislation which hedged around the governing with privileges, not granted to the governed; which proceeded on the principle that authority must be armed with weapons calculated to work by terror, so that it may not be under the necessity of using the ordinary precautions. otherwise requisite for carrying out its behests. There is no more reason in a vessel being forfeited because of goods, being found in it which had even cheated Iler Majesty's Customs, than there is in a house being forfeited to the owner of stolen goods found there, which had been secreted without the knowledge of the householder. It is law, simply because the governing parties for the time being had the power of making the law, and to arbitrarily surround themselves and theiradministration with special powers for enforcing their will, whether just or unjust. It is. true that smuggling is an offence to be guarded against by stringent legislation. So is burglary ; so is thieving ; but nobody thinks of advocating such Draconian principles , as that the house and all the belongings among which are found stolen goods should be forfeited to the person whose stolen goods are found there ; and there is no more

right reason why 3hould be favoured in their ? r laxit y % involving the persons in ru in because of the of an offsnce with wh ££ these may have had nothing to do 'n>„ law is an arbitrary one, eminently tyrannical, fitted enough for the davs when irresponsible tyranny ruled tho relations of the governing and thp governed, but utterly alien to spirit of fair dealing that the administration of public aaaira! quite as much as the ordinary upline— of man with man. It is of a piece . the rule Under which, until throughout all these colonies, no man' however wronged, could bring an action against the Government for compen, satiop without first obtaining the per! mission of the Government. But. assuming that this is .lan- t ]j ß law not alone of New Zealand, bat thp Customs law in all the colonies it none the less a diigra.ee that it should 1 have been carried out to its bitter end by the Government. Of course in the circumstances, the law Courts could have done nothing less than interpret the law But there is nothing bindinc on the Government to have enforced the penalty. That was in the discretion of Ministers, who must have known perfectly well that the owner of the Gazelle m Sydney must have Leea wholly innocent of the offence or ne«li gence ot his servants. It may be v; ;, lie should have been more careful in r,he selection of his officers, and that it - : may teach a lesson to owners to not place their property i n the hands of people whom they cannot trim to iv guard against the loss of that nroperiy But it is obvious to any readable mind, that such a thing is i ffi . po3sible .;. to. guard against. The case of the s.<= Doric was appositely put by the Chair'- 1 man of the Chamber of Commerce What is there to prevent an officer of '■ that ship from carelessly leaving v' broken packages of tobacco aboutl - : We can even suppose it wilfully clone A by someone having a grudge against the ship , or against the' company. -.. Would it be possible for the owners of the White Star line, or for the directors ;; of the Now Zealand Shipping Company " to provide against such a possibility i Everyone knows it would not. And : would the Government dare to confis.- ■■ cate the big ship 1 Indeed they would 1 not. Under no possible circumstances would they do. so. The New Zealand Shipping Company is far too powerful in i New Zealand for that; nor would Ministers have the moral courage to make themselves the laughing stock of ;: Europe and America. Bat, because this Captain Ellis is a stranger and not the New Zealand Shipping Company, or anybody half so potential in New Zealand politics, his ship is seized and ■ forfeited, though he was as little morally responsible for the neglect of Customs regulations in New Zealand as would be the owners of the White Star liners for the freaks of anyone of - their hundreds of officers, on their"" scores of mammouth steamers, in the various ports visited throughout the world. If incidents such as this which New Zealand has had- the honour of ■ producing, were liable to occur, oceangoing steamers would be ticklish property, but happily there is a confidence reposed in the average common sense, if not also in the general honesty and honour of public administrations, sothat owners of such valuable property sleep serenely; and it is to be hoped that, even at this eleventh hour,, the Government will be moved to not making New Zealand,, through this, Gazelle case, a frightful example. '■ But this concerns the whole peopled. It is not to be supposed that bad as it is, the case of the Gazelle will have the effect, as suggested, of deterring any . . shipping from New Zealand. But :' there is something more to be con- : sidered. The whole thing has such an aspect of palpable dishonesty that it cannot but reflect on the honour of the place. We are not, indeed, as a port responsible for the conduct of the'" Government, but a scandal such as this will stick to Auckland, and it will be remembered that Auckland was the scene of this arbitrary confiscation. It is the duty of the Chamber of Com- :, merce, as representing the merchants and commercial feeling of the city, to disown complicity or sympathy in the wrong that has been done; and even if nothing can be effected in the way of moving the Government to cancel the forfeiture of the Gazelle, to at least place on record their protest. The matter has now been brought before the Chamber of Commerce in a proper form, and we do not hesitate to say that it is their duty not to rest •"< until this anomalous condition of the / law, involving possible ruin to owners of every class of merchant vessel on which, accident or negligence may occurj is so altered as to place the property of innocent owners beyond the power of arbitrary or whimsical' administration of the Customs laws. -'■■■■