CORRESPONDENCE.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2020, 15 April 1875, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THB SCARCITY OF POWDEK. To the Editor of the Thames Advertiser.

Sib, I will feel obliged if you will allow me space to refer to the present scarcity of blasting powder, with a view to explaining the causes of such scarcity, and to preventing, if possible, its recurrence. About a year ago, I drew the attention of your readers, and your representatives in the Provincial Council, to the fact that the charges for storage of •powder in the magazines were much too heavy, amounting to 2d (two-pence) per lb per annum, or 50 per cent, on the original home cost of the article; and I pointed out, that, under these circumstances, no dealer would care to keep a large supply on hand, because, any chance importation could be sold from the ship's side at a price which would be much under the c st of any parcel which had been a few months in the magazine. You remember Mr Carpenter brought tlm before the Council, and a resolution was passed recommending the Superintendent to reduce the rates by, at least, one half, but, for some reason, the Executive did not advise the Superintendent to give effect to the resolution, and the recommendation was, apparently, shelved. As long as these enormous charges exist, powder will be periodically scarce, and the price to the miners will be always high enough to cover at least six months rent, as a merchant must reckon the contingency of such expenses being incurred. There is another matter to which I would also draw your attention, and that is, the license, for which a dealer must pay £5 before he is allowed to import, or to deal in blasting powder. The amount of this license puts another halfpenny per lb on the cost of a hundred barrels. As a precaution, in time of war, this license may have been necessary, but what chance is tbere now of the natives using blasting powder against the whites?—l am, &c., Tax Payjjb,