THE NEW CUSTOMHOUSE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4312, 22 March 1901, Page 7

THE NEW CUSTOMHOUSE

OPINIONS AS TO TITE SITE. WHAT THE MERCHANTS SAY. “Tho new site for the Customhouse near viable and Co.’s foundry will be decidedly inconvenient to the mercantile community.” Thus Mr Walter Nathan, of Bannatyne ami Co., to a representative of tho ‘isow Zealand limes yesterday. “it will be too far away, he went on. "When a man wants to do Customs business, he first of all goes to, the Customhouse and presents his invoice,; then he goes to the landing waiter aiyay at the end of the wharf, and if therje hap? pens to be a dispute about his goods, ho must go back to the Customhouse again. - This to a man whoso warehouse is away at tho Southern side of the wharf means a great loss of time.- Yjdu don’t want to spend fifteen minutes over something that, under ordinary circumstances ought to take only five, do [you ?” “Then you must remember,” continued Mr Nathan, “that tho business houses have been congregating about the Victoria street side oi the wharf. Well, if you take the Customhouse away from its present position and put it in that far corner now proposed, you must cause inconvenience toj these peoiple. 1 We don’t want a Customhouse to be a, thing of ornament; we have to. look at it from tho point ot View of utility, and'therefore it ought to be ptit where it kill be most convenient.” ; . Asked to suggest a better site fbr the Customhouse, Mr Nathan- said he considered that the land- now occupied by Levin and Co. would ’he more suitable.' Tliis block, he said, is to bo taken over by tho Government, r.ml they can put a. building there of any height, and he believed that there would ho plenty of room for the Customhouse thereMr Nicholas Reid said that the site would not bo inednveniefft for his firm (VV. and G. Turnbull’AM' Co.), but he could easily understand that a man doing business, say, in Grey street- or at the far side of the'town, would prefer to see tho Customhouse - established 1 in some more central! place 1 .- For this reason he thcaiglit that the proposed site would bo inconvenient for the bulk of the mercantile: community, as’ wel] as for the Customs officials themselves who would have to move about between the Customhouse and the Queen’s Wharf. It was probable, hojwever that the vacant sites about the Supreme Court would be occupied in tho nfear future, principally by warehouses, ajnd the presence of the Customhouse would, he thought, assist in that development. Again, it was likely that the neW Glasgow Wharf would in time ho largely used for the landing of goods. j Mr John Duthie did not think there was much to complain about as (o the site. “Of. coarse,”, ho said, “it will be further away from us, but still 1 do not think that is w-orthA considering. I din hflopifnbn.-‘that {hfeititffiv'tjo'have the CiTs'ldmhdust! Bli aiFihdep'endent sitc, a.?U 3r HPb se 'd.'.',/ .'®U:t,'i' think/RVis la matter for’ / the! ebrrespondtmgsr on - i the subject.., clispldses no incHdvtlon.-r that - the- jybrk: ftiil proceeded with akonco'.ikTTliero iS>no hint ; bf r alfy ’veto being-nskeiJ 1 -fo-r* n'4x-t (session for the ( jWork/ or anythinof thajb kind. Th'fact/" tho’thing ,dops not ieeni to be anyr forward’. ; If is High Iffjffc that a. port of tho importance. o£j Wellington .should have: a ; Cnsto'mkpiwe- dUifs own, and one is disappointed ■ fiMSfc no promise is-' given' that - the- work" * wfll{b& c -gon e on with at Quqe-”.,-, ~ ;';:;’ r ! /ry .--I MrMills ;(E. ! VW; .CpV); agreed that .the'hew’ bulhling'wejwfd' bo. too faraway, ; and;,;®U.ggestpd?rU\a : t; JLerih and ASjJ’s siteic>f onid’-ba: piieferarblci-j ’ i “OandidlypfDdon-’t'think "that the differ HetijeOh /the -present new one is'ivorth’ botj[i[e)jng,ahogt[” said another- ...merchant-! ,< pi'.; ’Victoriq. >, .street. ‘■’Why, I coipld wajknit-.i’h,throe minutes, rAitd.-Sufeli'; o.llr tithe is nob of'finch extraordinary yalueA’fßat- thretVminutes -is going to make such a difference [to us. Spmp of tho heaviest payors of dues will really, bo the .Customhouse;. and tho’sWall^UfteiVivhp' are in the dii-ootion of To'-AVd' eihploV' Customs agents,’ ; so what’ difforeiu-c can it make' to (them,?. This nc>v; site ’has heonTtalked ot for a Customhouse for A long [time., ft.Js,iia new thing; it is no discovery off the part of Mr George Fisher. Two yeais ago’, when the Harbour Board and City Council got the Act passed in refereffeeito this land, a clause was put in reserving the site for a Cuatoiffhouse." ' | “Yes, it'will be further'away for us,” said another merchant,-also of Victoria street, but,then everybody-can’t have a Customhouse at his door,-and wherever you put it the man who is furthest away is sure -to find -it inconvenient J The clerks will have an extra tramp,! but I j-ealiy do not think there will be any shriek about it. vv o are - not going to write any letters to the papers, : or get up a deputation to ministers: oveff it.” “I don’t care where the Customhouse is” was the reply of another. “I won ! t have to walk there, and shouldn’t care-' if they put it lup at Mount Cook.?’ ~ |