The Evening Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2072, 27 December 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1869.

The probable operation of the proposed alteration in the mode of collection of Jetty dues is too serious a matter to be lightly treated. The reason given for the change in the mode of collection is that a saving will be effected in the expense —that the services of sonic two or three clerks can be dispensed with. This would be a sufficient motive for the change if no other result but saving were likely to follow, or if, in all other respects, the proposed system would act beneficially. It is, indeed, asserted that the revenue from Jetty dues will be increased, and that also is a recommendation. Thus, then, we have before us two clear advantages, either of which would he sufficient to justify the change, were there no drawbacks. But it is just those drawbacks that form the objectionable part of the plan. Those who framed the Ordinance have apparently only looked at one side of the question, and that the favorable one. The Chamber of Commerce, and through it the Government, are asked to look at the other side, and to consider whether the rule applied to one class of vessels is equally applicable to all. It is shown, and that conclusively, that so far as lighters or vessels having full cargoes are concerned, the change will act beneficially; but that to charge Jetty dues on the registered tonnage of steamers and coasting vessels arriving with only a few tons of cargo, is not only manifest injustice, but can end in no other way than by driving the trade from the place. At the very best the little coasting trade there is, is hardly sufficient to induce regular traders to ply between the different ports of the Colony. It is a department of trade that is in so weak a condition as to require all the cage and nurture that can be given to it. But under the existing regulations, by which only a fair charge is made upon the goods delivered, although at present no one expects to get rich out of it, there are evidences that it might perhaps have grown until, to the mutual advantage of merchants and tradesmen, regular and remunerative means of intercommunication and transit could be maintained. Our Jetty dues system seems likely to be a severe blow and great discouragement to the coasting trade. It must be very plain that while a tonnage rate, especially when charged on the registered tonnage of a lighter, may be a great advantage to consignees, it may form a very serious item in the freight of a vessel leaving her ports ot departure at stated times, irrespective of the quantity of cargo to be conveyed. A lighter can carry commonly half as many more tons weight than her registered measurement, Few steam vessels can do that, but even were they able to stow as much away in proportion as a lighter, where is the freight to be obtained ? The intercourse between the various ports of the Province, or between Dunedin and the other Provinces, is not sufficient to insure the loading a steamer, or even a coasting vessel, every trip. The consequence will be that ten or fifteen tons of cargo will prove a loss rather than an advantage for a coaster to bring; for she must pay as many times more per ton in Jetty dues as her registered tonnage exceeds the actual amount of cargo on board. Now the question to be decided is, Whether the Port and the Province are not likely to lose much more by thus reducing the profits of a trade so much as to render it cheaper to abandon it than to carry it on, than will be gained by the improved mode of collection % It seems somewhat singular that the question of bonuses and protection should be confined in the minds of politicians to matters pertaining to one or two classes. True, farmers and manufacturers have large interests in communities, but they are capable of bringing actual calculation to bear upon their prospects of profit. Not so those who engage in the early development of interprovincial trade. They have not only to encounter the discouragement of uncertain traffic returns, but they have to compete with other Colonies in supplying the means of transit. Any arrangement tending therefore to take oft* their returns is so' much additional discouragement. Drive them from the trade, and the enterprise of merchants is limited. Already we learn Melbourne has superseded Dunedin in supplying the West Coast, principally because no steamers have been placed on the berth to supply the vacancy caused by the loss of the William Miskin. This was an unforeseen and unavoidable contingency, against which no foresight could avail. But when, with the means of calculation at our command, we deliberately do that which will destroy a trade that ought to be fostered, we commit a suicidal act that

cannot be too strongly reprobated. If it is impossible to make an equitable arrangement by charging upon the actual amount of cargo brought, as proved by the ship’s manifest, it would be more to the advantage of the Province to forego the collection ot such dues than to drive the vessels away by charging live or ten times the proportional amount paid by others.