WHAT IS OUR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Colonist, Volume VII, Issue 661, 26 February 1864, Page 2

WHAT IS OUR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

What is the Nelson Chamber of Commerce? and what are. its especial functions ? Replies to these two queries are to be found in the rules and constitution of the Chamber It is a self-constituted association, whose objects are declared to be these:—

" To watch over and protect the general interests of commerce ; to collect information on all matters of interest to the mercantile community ; to use every means within its power for the removal and redress of grievances, and for the promotion of tho trade of the province and the colony ; to communicate with the authorities and with individual parties—thereupon to form a code of practice whereby the transactions of business may be simplified and facilitated, and to arbitrate in all matters submitted by disputants."

These are truly important duties, and the manner in which they are performed, together with the benefit the chamber may do to the interests of trade and the community at large, ought to be as widely disseminated as possible. The deliberations of a body whosefield of labor ! is so extensive, are, unfortunately, closed ; against the public. Like the Venetian Council of Ten the members s*t in secret and promulgate their variousj^a^ as seems to them gbotf. Reporters are not admitted within the precincts of their secret chambers. This is just the reverse of the practice of all Chambers of Commerce at home. There these bodies strive to obtain all the publicity they can, and invite public discussion of the subjects they consider and of their method of treating them, publishing annual reports of their proceedings, and generally striving to do good, not merely to one particular class* but to all classes ; the consuming people as well as the merchant and ordinary vendor. However, we do not quarrel with that; but some portions of the community may dislike the idea of any body whose proceedings are private forming a " code of practice " for the transaction of business, which code it may be attempted to adduce as binding on all classes whatever its provisions may be. We make not the slightest allegation that there, is in that code any thing objectionable; but if laws are to be made which are intended to regulate the transaction of general business, it seems tolerably clear that they should not be concocted in a manner unknown to the public. Before saying anything regarding the meeting of the body which has been held this week, let

us shortly examine Borne propositions which, emanated from the Chamber about a year ago. Of course, suet an, association taking charge of such broad, and manifold interests cannot possibly object to an unimpassioned examination of their projects after a little time has elapsed to mellow them andi^jto allow of their value being correctly appreciated. ,

Well, then, just about a year ago the Chamber of Commerce, animated by a" sincere conviction " of the wisdom of their proposals, petitioned the Provincial Council, on the subject of developing the '". agricultural aad mineral resources of a large part of the western portion of the province," and in that petition they declared categorically that five different things were " absolutely necessary." Of these one is harmless if of little use, and one is valuable. The first of these was the proclaiming of a gold bonus for the discovery of new gold-fields, a thing about the advantage of which far too much has been made, and which has been done by the Government with the view of its being paid to the the proper claimants. The other is the examination of the "West Coast coal-fields and the obtaining reports on the same. This was in progress, if we mistake not, long before the petition was presented, and practical testing of the fields is still going on. Two of the other projects were to proclaim the diggings at tlie "West Coast aa a goldfield under the Act; and to establish "an overland gold escort from the gold-fields to Nelson city." "We all know to what an attenuated condition this gold-field proclaiming theory arrived before it met with utter.death at the hands of the late committee and itß witnesses; and the escort notion vras not long ago the source of considerable hilarity. The fifth proposition is the opening of a " main line of communication between Nelson and the mineral and agricultural districts" of the "West Coast, such main line to be " capable of carrying a heavy traffic at all seasons of the year." This main line, the petition said, ought to lie a railway, which, it was averred would be " the most economical in first cost, as well as in after maintenance," and that? the whole cost of constructing such railway would be defrayed by the proceeds of sales of land which would be opened up thereby. 1* How utterly every one of these calculations has been shown to be fallacious, reference to the evidence led before the Bailway Committee will prove, and. indeed the railway idea itself is now very generally laughed ,at as a scheme in which very few of its professed supporters had any faith, and any who did really believe in the scheme as .propounded, had their judgment darkened by jUiA; but most of these few are now sensible of the absurdity of the business. These form a tolerable crop of fallacies to be discovered in one solitary document springing from .-" sincere convictions" founded on the collective wisdom of this commercial chamber; a document which, ~as we stated at the time it was published, showed a sad lack of that work of calculation of cost which such a body as a Chamber of Commerce ought to produce in plain figures.

In its character of guardian of the commercial interests of Nelson the Chamber has we find been giving its attention this week to the question of the removal of the seat ,of Government. li, a^/citra that at an.' adjourned meeting of the Chamber, ;

" The chairman, O. Curtis, Esq., brought before the members the subject of the removal of thji seat! of Government to Cook Strait, and BUgge^oditbjl^tjßpi should bo taken by the Chamber; tp^H^ijitf^dfance to lay before the Commissioners 'orv'tfieif irrtfaiVKere, showing the advantages which Nelson \6Bers.for becoming the seat of Government. In the<jpuraiei6f a discussion which ensued, a regret was ■expressed by several members that the Government of thoprovince had not taken-the initiative in the;business, and it wasstntedthatMr.il. E. Curtis had: waited .upon the Superintendent, nearly six weeks ago, with tho view of inducing hU Honor to move in the matter, when tho Superintendent promised Mr. Curtis to giro it his consideration, and to communicate with him on an early day, but that nothing had since been heard from Mr. Robinson on the subject. It was at length agreed to appoint a committee of the Chamber,-to consist of Messrs. H. E. Curtis, Kingdon, Elliott, Bennett, and Scaife, .to collect all the requisite information, so as to be prepared to lay it before the Commissioners on their arrival in Nelson."

It is not what wo should be inclined to term extremely modest for a committee of a few gentlemen, (by the way, some of them were members of the celebrated Gold-fields Committee— ahsit omen /) to appropriate thework of the Parliamentary Commissioners and gratuitously take up those of the Provincial Goyferntnont. Has any official intimation been made of the appointment of $he?§ 'Commissioners and their comings visit Ac Cook's Strait, or are the members "of the Chamber of Commerce aware what character of evidence the Commissioners will require ? "What might be thY "initiative in the .business," which it is asserted and regretted the 'Government of the province had not taken ? presume the " initiative in the business " is an intimation from the General Government, or from the secretary to the commission that the Commissioners will attend.at j certain stated times and take evidence. "W"e do not believe the Provincial Government is neglecting the matter; and while we should suppose the Chamber of Commerce may be free to offer any evidence to the Commission, the formal official notification of the visit, together most probably with the character of the information which the Commissioners shall require, will undoubtedly t)e ; Bent through the pfficial head of the province. A list of persons best qualified to give the necessary evidence can very easily be drawn up, if indeed this is not don^ already; and as for organising evidence, that only can be done formally when the precise nature of the information required is officially ascertained. The Chamber of Commerce seems to us to be going a little out of its way to anticipate the orders of the Commissioners, or to attempt to take the matter out of the hands of the Provincial Government, which will most certainly receive instructions to produce evidence, and no "doubt will" arrange for doing so aB. fully as possible against the arrival of the Commissioners. "We are as , completely alive to the necessity of haying

all done that can be done for showing the capacities of Nelson as the site for the seat of Government, but everything should be done decently and in orHer, and it is scarcely decent for the Chamber of Commerce to assume a power, which, by the narrative quoted above, it is evidently attempting to put in opposition to the legiffrnate official proceedings of the Provincial Government. It does not follow because Mr. Herbert Curtis, who at present is in Auckland, has not heard from the Superintendent, that therefore his Honor is forgetful of a subject of such importance to the Province ; or that he would view Mr. Curtis's application as " a joke " which Mr. Fox (according to Mr. Curtis) did not do, when Mr. Curtis asked him " how much " of a bribe he would give if he would support the Fox Ministry some two or three years ago. "We know nothing more of the true functions of the Chamber of Commerce than what we have gathered from the Rules and Constitution. Some people are malicious enough to term it a small political union, and say that much of the talk at its meetings is purely political. But whatever these functions may be any attempt on the part of that body, directly or indirectly, to supersede the doings of the Provincial Government in a matter of this kind, if we judge from nothing more than its last year's Council petition, can be regarded only aa a Tery good joke indeed.

A Relic op the "Old Identity."—One of the oldest houses, if not the oldest original dwelling in •Nelson, has just been taken d,own. Passengers along the Haven-road have noticed what was evidently once a fine shop front, but which gradually lost every pane in both windows and doors by the stone throwing propensities of juvenile Nelson, and its delapidated condition formed an eye-sore to the passers-by. It is now gone, the matorials having been sold at the small figure of £5. As a relic of the early days of houso building in Nelson o little of the history and cost of this house may be interesting. A correspondent informs us that this houso was erected by Mr. J. S Cotterel, surveyor, formerly of Bath, and one of the unfortunate gentlemen who lost his life in tbeWairau massacro of 1843. Mr. CotteroPs death was felt as a great loss to the early settlers, as his enterprising •pint promised to be of considerable service during the infancy of the settlement. The foundations of the house and of the chimneys -were built of stone, quarried at considerable expense (wages being then rery high, a man for wheeling debris from the hill getting then as much as 12s. a day) from a rock at the foot of Mr. Stafford's ground* at the port. The whole building, which, except the foundation, was of wood, cost about £1500, leaving out of account the value of the ground on which it was built. On being taken down it was found that the wood work •was all rotten, chiefly from the ravages of the boring worm, but the Van Diemen's Land shingles were good and efficient to the last, although they have •tood the summer sun and winter rain of nearly twenty-two years. The house has been occupied by various tenants, thrice it was a general store, once as an ironmonger's, once as a druggist's shop, once by a general dealer, and once as a private dwelling. Tho property has changed ownors three tunas during the twonty-one years. The house, with the acre of land on which it stood, together with a brick store still standing, was sold for £400, more lately it fetched £700, and tho present owner now values it at £1000. The lowest rent paid for tho house was £8 a year, and the highest £50. It may be mentioned that Mr. Cotterel built, in the Waimea Eiver, tho nrst craft over produced by Nelsou, namely, tho cutter Enterprise. When finished she was sent to Massacro Bay, and conveyed the first cargo of coal ever brought to this port. °

Djjath op Captain Muxdle, fobmebly op thb Oliver Lang.—Captain Mundle, ao well known as the captain of the Oliver Lang, aod eldest brother of Captain G. Mundle, of the Kangitira, died on the 7th August last, ir. China, of gastric fever, and a monument to his memory has beon erected at Shanghai by his officers and crew as a mark of the respect in which they huld him.

Mabixe Boat i> of New Zealand.—A meeting of the Marino Bon d, under the presidency of Captain Sharp, was hei.l lately at the Marino Board Office, Government Buildings— River Steamers: It was, wo understand, decided tliat the extreme limits of distance for Nelson and Picton river steamors shall include Blind Buy, Massacre (Golden) Bay, aud as far along the coast as Wnirau through the French Pass. It must bo understood that this distance is the full extent to/which the best class of river steamers in either of the two provinces of Nelson :md Marlborough may ply, an d it is in the option of the surveyor to decide what vessels are of sufficient excellence to warrant their going the full distance.— Jßoacon on the Sand Sjrit: Tho Board were of opinion that a lighthouse on the Sand Spit was both desirable and necessary for the proper navigation of Blind Bay; but as, at present, the Board wero not in funds to meet the expense of a lighthouse, it was resolved to write to the Superintendent of the province, requesting his Honor to construct a Beacon of sufficient proportions, ■ay 40 feet high, as a temporary structure, until tho Board were sufficiently in funds to erect a proper lighthouse.— Beacon in French Pass .- The Superintendent was also applied to, to give instructions to hare a lnrgo ball, now ready, placed on the beacon nt the end of the reef in the French Pass, as at present the beacon 13 not visible at much distance, and also to examine the buoy and moorings. This ball is to be painted red, on a white buoy, and will therefore be readily distinguishable.