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Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 769, 22 December 1870, Page 2

The s s. Waipara, from Hokitika, arrived yesten'aj Tnornirtg, from' Ilokifcika, with cargo transhipped from the ; Oraeo and ' Alhambra. ''She' left -again at 8.-p.m. for northern ports. Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood and Co.'s mail steamfer-Bangitoto, from Melbourne, is due here 'on Sunday next. She will have quick despatch, for New Zealand ports and Melbourne. The p.sVCharles Edward, with the English mail, left Wesbport last night for Hokitika. He mail will consequently not arrive here until late this evening ovto-morrcw morn-* ng. ■,'■::,■.■•- ■ .- r -■-■.:■ Writingjfrom Alexandria on the 3rd September, ..a . correspondent says '. — " Tho Egyptian^ Government has given notice to the Maritime Commerce of its intention' to collect port and light, dues, on and after Ist. September, from all merchant steam and sailing ves^ls entering Egyptian , ports in the Mediterranean or Hed Sea. The question of these dues has been under discussion with the foreign Governments fdr some time past. At last, the French Government having accepted the Egyptian proposal, the British cprpmuhifcy was iufovmed on the 30fch of Angnst-^rhat is to say, wibh twe days' notice — that British shipping, which in tonnage measures more thahiall oth?r tonnage, home and. foreign, put together, visiting Egyptiiij ports, would' also be subject to the newly-imposed dues. Having regard to the bearing of OUr ; treaties with -the Sublime Ottoman! Porte tin the free entry of British' shipping into Turkish waters, one would think that the : notice of imposition of the new dueajin. Egyptian ports. wo.uld c at least have tieen 5 formally given 4o 'British subjects through the usual channel of the London Gazette) and that a- reasonable time would — ».... uLtxw i* o ty cra.rts aiready in September, the Ist qi January, 1871, would not have been an 'unreasonable period oh which to fix for the chiesjto take effect. And why is British -ftm^pfiig^ of which the; interests are three or four times asgreafca^tlioseof French .shipping ; in Egyptian ports, to be dependent rapon. French-, policy: ?r I have no datafon whichT/tp r -base a , comparison;, between the Egyptian; dues, and the. dike dues in the poStl #£:> Great: Britain or of India, ior of any o£b#r rfpfuntry ; but thu Egyptian dues aeem. [^eyy,i,,and,,will, certainly- form, a sensible item in "the ■ future annual accounts of the Peninsular and, yrjcntal Company. In one^yjar 72 : steamers' 'belonging to that compac^eipter.the Egyptian port of Suez, and 96 that of Alexandria, say of a mean tonnage- of ;L)00 tons. Thus, after deducting 40 per peut. of thia. gross tQnnage for coal sp.ice'(?ule 11). arid five per pent, on account of those steamers carrying mails (Rule 10), we have r a residue of 925 tons on which to charge the dues, which: gives in the, case of a Suez Bteamer for one entrance 1625paistres (974 p.=F-Ll),^and for 72 Suez steamers LI2OO per annum; and in the case of an Alexandrian;- steamer, 600 f piastres, or for 9G steamers L6OO per annum ; making together LIBOO a year- out of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's dividenflß, .which are nofc very high. Men-of-war are not to pay dues ; but how about our Indian relief transports? and if thesd are excused, : w hy ; sh'djild the whole burden of the diies payable by British ships be thrown' upon- merchant ships? At all events, Great Britain will find that she has to pay more than half the whole of the new port and light dues to be collected in Egyptian ports. The new light and port dues are by Rule 10 to be paia even hy fishing-boats, although the fisherman are already so trammelled that nearly all sea-fish at Alexandria and Suez are as dear as salmon in June in London,— P all Mall Gazette, ■: j