THE CUSTOM HOUSE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3136, 16 July 1881, Page 2

THE CUSTOM HOUSE.

I To the Editor of the Daily Temguaph.] Sib, —There is a letter signed " On- ! looker" in yesterday's Herald brimfull of misstatements. Outsiders might be involved by them, so I will take the trouble to correct a few of the more promineut. The letter opens by stating there has been a gradual decline of business at Port Ahuriri. This is contrary to fact. The >Spit ha 6 grown in size and prosperity relatively quite as much as the shop end of the town, and in any friendly contests, whether it be fire brigade practice, boating, cricket, or other athletic sports, the men of the Spit do not play second fiddle. Now that the railway conveys the produce of the province direct to the stores at the Spit, there is not the apparent bustle there used to be in old times, when half a dozen bullock drays might be seen in our streets. The fact, however, remains that the trade of the port has enormously increased. It is a matter of wonder to strangers how the traffic with the Spit maintains such an array of cabs, between thirty and forty, all well appointed and all well patronised. This will explain to some extent how there is so little traffic by rail between the town and Spit. The railway station is nearly as much out of the road from the centre of the town as tbe Spit is, and yet the neighbourhood of the railway station, it is stated, is the spot to be recommended for the Custom House. Town consignees would then have the double journey to the Custom House with their cheques, and afterwards to the Spit with their entries for the landing waiter. The fact is ignored that the port is the terminus of the railway, and the bulk of the goods traffic is from there. At present the timber for Mr Holt's wood factory is brought to town, but he intends removing to tbe Spil. A number of our leading merchants, it is said, have removed their places of business from the Spit to the town. I do not know of one. No doubt one house intends removing, but I fancy tbe Spit will survive it, and at any rate chickens should not be counted

before they are hatched. Tbe argument that because Lyttelton and Christchurch have each a Custom House therefore the town and Spit should have the same appears puerile. If Lyttelton and Christchurch were parts of the same town, within a radius of a mile of each other, and the residences of the traders between the two places, would there have been the smallest chance of a separate Custom House ? I think not. I would suggest to those who want a Custom House at their doors that an office on wheels might go round town with the collector inside to receive duties. Outside it might be used as an advertising medium, and so defray the expense of horse and driver. The impression conveyed that Lyttelton has dwindled into insignificance is incorrect. Lyttelton has vastly increased in size and population, and is now one of tbe finest ports in the colony. More irrelevent still is the argument about Dunedin and Port Chalmers. Dunedin has always been a port, and had a Custom House. Port Chalmers never had warehouses, and the two places are twelve miles apart. Where the town is within easy distance of the port the Custom House is always at the latter place* Look at Nelson j there the places of business are all in town, but the Queen's warehouses and the Custom House are at the port. Here the case is much stronger, as not only the bonded warehouses but the wholesale stores are at the port. It needs no great power of prophecy to predict a great future for Napier, and as there is no great room for expaneion the town and Spit will become one line of streets. — 1 am, &c, Sfif. July 15, 1881.