CUSTOMS & MARINE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1831, 18 August 1913, Page 3

CUSTOMS & MARINE.

SPEECH BY THE MINISTER. . j CLASSIFICATION AND THE TARIFF. ' There was a large gathering at St. Peter's Schoolroom on Saturday night, tho occasion being the annual football smoke eon- I cert of tho Customs and Marine Departments and the Customhouse agents of the city. Air. Robt. Fletcher (chairman of tho Wellington Harbour Board) presided, and among those present were the Hon. OF. M. B. Fisher (Minister for Customs and Marine), Mr. W. B. Montgomery (Secretary for Customs), Mr. 'I. S. Young (New Zealand Express Company), Mr. A. V. Hale Monro (wharfinger), Dr. A. K. Newman, M.P., .and Mr. J. &• Dickson, M.P. A-Vpologies for absence wero. received. from the Prime Minister (the Hon. W. F. Massev),'ihc Hon. A. L. Herdman, tho Hon. H. D. Bell, Mr. Geo. Allport (Secretary for Marine), Mr. H. L. Nicholls '(secretarv of tho Harbour Board), Mr. J. W. Mnrchbanks (Harbour Board Engineer), and others. , ■ After tho toast of the reigning Sovereign had been honoured, Mr. proposed tho toast of "Parliament, _ and in doing so referred in tumorous vein to tho tariff. If this wero left to the Department and tho Customs agents to compile, he suggested that they, at least, would be able to understand it, but when members of dealt with it, and brought in their various amendments, then no one could understand it. The classification list, which the Civil Service wag anxiously awaiting, had not arrived yet, but when it did, he had no doubt it would ba the samo as tho Estimates ltad been in past years, "sufficient to provoko strong language." (Laughter.) The speaker, however, had a good word for tho work done by Parliament in passin# the Superannuation Act, which he declared would help to bring the best brains into th® Civil Service. . The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher said ho understood; from the very excellent speech that had been made by Mr. Paul, that the whole Civil Service was practically "lining out" for the Commissioners; report to be "thrown in." Probably by the time it was. thrown in there would be something of .a "scramble," but the Government hoped that it would mark an epoch in tho lifo of the Civil Service in New Zealand-in that it would do away with personal influence and reward njorit. When it was brought down they would be able to so all d unravel any of the tangles in which they had found themselves. Ho hoped it would give satisfaction to -the Civil Service throughout the country. In future every man was going to stand upon his merits, and there was going to bs no personal influence of any kind—no political influence, at anyrate. Tlio Master then went on to remark that in his experience tire Customs Department was ono of-the most difficult to' administer,* especially -when there was a revision of tariff in view. In this connection he mentioned some of the obstacles that were met with. Ho also paid a tribute to tho officers of tho Department for tlio manner in which the work had been carried out in the past under a trying system, and the relationships that had existed between them and the Customs agents. Ihe Government had coming down shortly a system which to facilitate the work of the Customs officers, and it was hoped that the legislation this session would leave things a little better than they were when the Government took office- . Dr. Newman, who also replied to the loast, said that when he heard the eloquent speech of Mr. Paul h® w'?sthankful that that man was chained up m the Department and unable to stand for. Wellington East. (laughter.) Dr. Newman also complimented the teams on tlioir annual effort in the football Jem, and ■spoke of the value of. thsgaino for those in office work. 11-9 humorously likened Parliament to a football match, and tile Ministry to a fine- heavy Jet of forwards to lead the attack for the Government side. ' .Mr. Diclwon added a few further.-re-mavks in reply to the toast. . "The Wellington Harbour Board -was, pnnosed by Mr. J. J. Casey; •Mr. Flotcher, in reply, .• acknowledged what had been said of the boards proTCoS, and indicated that tho intention Sf til's board was to maintain progress alow? sound lines. If the politicians would let them alone and leave them lor endowments 'the land that had been won from the sea, it would in a few years time bo tho means of assisting in other works, which needed to be carried out. If on the other hand the Government took that land, it would result am increased charges being mode. That wonld be a very had thing for Wellington city and everyone in it. The board wanted to, "keep their property in order that it might bo utilised for making Wellington the first city, in New Zealand as at the present time. ■ ' , . Mr. Monro also added a few words ui reply to tho toast. Among other toasts honoured were: "Customs and Marine," proposed by Mr. T. S. Young, and responded to by Mr. W B. Montgomery (Customs) and Mr. B. , Millier (Marine); "Customs Agents, proposed by Mr. G. Craig, and responded to bv Mr. G. B. Christie and Mr. P. Myers; "The Teams and tho Referee," proposed bv Mr. D. Butler and responded to by tho captains and Mr, E. Dudley-Good; and ! tho "Wellington Customs - Staff, proposed by Mr. Marsden, and responded to by Mr. J. M. O'Reilly. . , . 'A feature of a capital evenings entertainment was a violin solo by Mr. ,1. !■ O'Kano, who was enthusiastically encored. Mr. Major gavo a neat, exhibition ot ; conjuring. Other contributors to the programme included Messrs. J. Sweeney, A. ' Newton, H. -Mitchell, J. Hamilton Sniythe, Hoolc, Forne, and Milsom.