CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 838, 20 December 1867, Page 17

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The quarterly meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce was held on Tnesday afternoon, in the long room at the Athenseum. Mr E. B. Cargill, the President, was in the chair ; and there were also present, Messrs L. 0. Beal, J. L. Butterworth, C. Caldwell, J. Davie, J. Rattray, J. Ross, G. Turnbull, J. J. Watson, and J. S. Webb, Secretary.

The Chairman said that the meeting ■was an ordinary quarterly one ; and the only "business to be brought forward, was the balloting for a member. The Committee had been too short a time in office, to have advanced very far with any work upon which they had been engaged. The attention of the Committee had been directed to two matters, both of very considerable interest to the commercial community. The first was as to the discharge of ships in the Port. It had been thought that such an improvement might be effected in the arrangements, as would get rid of a great deal of the delay which now existed — which was a very great inconvenience both to the ships and to the consignees of goods by them, and was scarcely creditable to the Port. There was n6 reason why ships should not have their cargoes discharged as rapidly as the labor of taking out the goods could be got through ; and any delays in the nature of merely obstructive regulations, it should be the business of the Chamber, by every possible means, to endeavor to get rid of. The Committee had been in communication with the Collector of Customs ; and they were now engaged in obtaining information from other Ports, -which it was hoped would enable them to proceed more confidently by and by. The second matter was the despatch of the Panama Mail. It was felt to be a wholly unnecessary loss of time, that the steamer should not only take an extra day, to provide for contingencies on the voyage between this Port and Wellington, but that the boxes should be closed, habitually, at ten o'clock in the morning. Remonstrance had frequently been made on the subject by the Chamber, but as yet without result. He could testify to the positive absurdity of the thing, from, what he himself saw last month. The mail was closed in Ikinedin at ten o'clock. He went down to the Port in the boat that took down the boxes ; and he saw the mailsteamer leiving Port Chalmers at four o'clock in the afternoon. The public, therefore, might have been allowed the advantage of the boxes not being closed until half-past one, instead of the mail being allowed to lie for hours at Port Chalmers. There was a third matter of very great interest to which he might be allowed to draw attention — the sudden rise which had taken place, within a few days, in the prices of grain and flour — a rise which seemed to have taken the community completely by surprise. After that kind of produce had lain in a very dormant state — altogether unprofitable to the farmers — for the greater part of the year, it had suddenly got to be believed that the supply was insufficient to last until the next harvest ; and the consequence had been a rise of several shillings in the price of wheat within a few days. Such a sudden change, particularly following a low range of prices during the year, was a very great evil; for the two parties most interested in the regulation of the prices of grain — the producers and the consumers — were equally put to a disadvantage, and were almost defrauded of their rights. As a matter of fact, this year, producers had been compelled to sell at prices that had been simply ruinous, under an impression, he presumed, arising from a want of sufficient informatkn upon the questions of supply and consumption. The prices at which the producers had been selling were, in fact, such that, if continued, they could have but the effect of throwing land out of cultivation, and so making us dependent on imported supplies, or of causing those severe fluctuations which were so great an evil, especially in a new country. Now, the grain had passed out of the hands of the producers, and into the hands of those who held an intermediate position ; and the public, he presumed, would have to pay very high prices during the remainder of the year, for all the flour required for consumption. It was a great evil, that the benefit of the rise should go to intermediate parties, who had no interest in the production of the grain. He trusted that the Government would this year see it right to obtain the very best information possible in the way of agricultural statistics, so that the most reliable means might be had for calculating the extent of land under cultivation, and the probable extent of the crops. Mr Rattray said that, with the best intentions on the part of cultivators, agricultural statistics were often deceptive. He had heard of a case that morning, in which a farmer last year put 40

acres of fine virgin soil tinder wheat ; and, calculating, as he well might do, on 50 bushels to the acre, he returned his probable yield as 2000 bushels. He stacked his wheat, and recently, when prices had risen, he threshed it ; the yield being 180 bushels. The farmer knew that, in consequence of very high winds, he had lost some grain ; but he never supposed that the actual yield would be so low as 180 bushels from the 40 acres. Mr J. W. M. Larnach, manager of the Bank of Otago, was unanimously elected a member of the Chamber. The meeting was adjourned.

Post Office Savings Bank. — A return recently published shows that the total amount received from depositors in the United Kingdom during the year 1863 was L 2,704,733, L 2,500,421, of which was received in England and Wales, L 86,649 in Scotland, and L 117,663 in Ireland. The total amount paid in the same time was L 1,026,207,, 026, 207, and the computed capital at the end of the year was L 3,376,828. During the four years that these banks have been established, all the above items have progressively increased, and at the end of 1866 stood as follows : — Total amount received, including interest, L 4,569,830, L 4,335,449 of which belonged to England and Wales, L 99,798 to Scotland, and L 134,583 to Ireland; total amount paid, 2,975,055, L 2,776,956, 776,956 being taken by England and Wales, L 83,013 by Scotland, and L 115,086 by Ireland. The total computed capital amounted to L 8,121,175,, 121, 175, L 7,719,981 of which belonged to England and Wales, L 164 ,560 to Scotland, and L 236,634 to Ireland. Imports of Cotton". — The value of the payments made for raw cotton this year appears likely to be greatly curtailed, having amounted to only L 25 ,883,752 to May 31, as compared with L 38,397,752 in the corresponding period of 1866, and L 17,182,887 in the corresponding period of 1865. The remittances to British India for cotton have been immensely curtailed of late, having amounted to only L 2,290,194, 290, 194 to May 31 this year, as compared with L 9,066,887, 066,887 in the corresponding period of 1866, and L 4,688,073, 688,073 in the corresponding period of 1865. The value ot the raw cotton imported in 1866 was set down at L 77 ,521,400 as compared with 1^,032,193 in 1865, and L 78 ,203 ,729 in 1864. This year's total will probably be somewhere about L 60,000,000.