THE Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1879. FOXTON A POET OF ENTRY.

Manawatu Herald, 4 February 1879, Page 2

THE Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1879. FOXTON A POET OF ENTRY.

«. _ The Customs returns for the various ports in the Colony are issued in the Gazette, and those for tho December quarter are now before us. They are most valuable, as showing the progress or retrogression of the different ports, and the comparative returns which accompany them, afford useful information as to the ratio of progress attained by the various commercial centres during the years 1877 and 1878. Tlie four chief ports of the Colony— Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Dunedin — all show a decided improvement during the last year, as will be seen by the following table of receipts : — * i, ;, 1577 - 18 ?8. Auckland .. .. £100,232 £224,987 Wellington .. .. 17«,939 200,816 Lyttelton .. .. 200,857 240,461 Dunedin .. .. 852,223 371,357 These four ports alone thus repre* sent an increaso of £111,370. He* ferring to the second and third class ofports, we notice that VVanganui holds a fair position, £26,050 having been received there last yeax-, or an increase of about £4,500 on 1877. But another idea is suggested in glancing at the list, and it is this. Why should some fourteen places of considerably less importance as district ports than Foxton, enjoy all the privileges of a port of entry, whilst the claims of the port of Manawatu are studiously ignored ? When the question was put to the Premier by Mr Johns* on during tho session,! re~ garding Foxton being declared a port of entry, Sir George Grey replied to the ef?edfc, that" the establishing such

a port at Foxton, would email an ox- | penso upon the revenue without au.y ! c 'rrespondintf return hfliilg made." j We believe Ml* Seed, the Secretary of Customs, holds a Vunilar view. Now, as a matter of fact, if there J wore only five Custom Housed ill the j wh>>le Colony, i-ho receipts would be j the same as at present, arid the expen-j d'v ure much less. But public cori^ venienco necessitates a Custom House at every plaee where shipping business is done to any extent. Hence 27 ports of entry have been declared in New Zealand. Some of them are comparatively insignificant, and the returns received are correspondingly small. For example — last year, Akaroa contributed £94, Mongonui £359, Kaipara £841, Havelock £845. Several other places might be mentioned, returning comparacWely small amounts to the revenue. Upon the principle enunciated by IHr George Grey, one-half the existing ports of entry should be immediately abolished, as the same amount of levenue would still flow into the exchequer, but Upon the grounds of public right, the various ports referred to are entitled to the privileges they possess. We believe, moreover, that were Foxton justly « raved in this matter, our port would at ouce step into the third rank. Uur ground for this is ths population at our back. We may argue from analogy. The Thames contributed £9170 last year to the Customs revenue, and yet, including the Borough of Grahamstown, the Thames County has a population of only 10,400 people ; at Westport, 1.1,688 was received, the population of the Buller County being only 3,500 ; Tauranga contributes £1909 with a population in the district of 1550.; whilst Poverty Bay returns £11,310 to the revenue, having a population of 2,745. Upon these figures, we may institute a comparison as to the injustice placed upon the Manawatu district. The County of Manawatu contains a population of 6,000 people, for the whole of whom Foxton is the natural port, being much nearer than Wanganui ; besides a large Uangitikei trade, which might be expected to increase the number by 2,000. If Poverty IJay then , with a population of 2, 700 people, returns £11,300 to the teveuue, Manawatn with treble the population, would probably" re; urn at least double that amount. The effect of being proclaimed a port of entry would be highly beneficial to Foxtou. We are aware that three or four residents would at ouce erect bonded warehouses, and we have reasons for saying that several Wellington firms, would open wholesalo branches. Foxton would then take its natural and proper position <ts tho commercial town of the district. The reasons for the action of the Government in this matter it would be hard to tell. Possibly Mr Hallance'ssttong Wanganui proclivities may have something to do with it ; another reason may be, that whatever amount was collected at Foxton would detract from the Wellington returns, whic'i perhaps would not suit Mr Seed's book, or that gentleman's economic ideas of departmental administration may be the obstacle. Whatever the real grounds of objection may be, it certainly is unjust that we should, as a business community, be denied the light conferred upon us by our geographical position.