The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 8TH 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 977, 8 April 1911, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL BTH 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The total receipts of the Greytowu Municipal Hall for the year ended 31st March, were ,£173 3s yd as against ,£127 10s 6d for the previous year. If the Foxtou Coronation Town Hall receipts total the last named figures—and there is no reason why it shouldn’t —then add the rental of the hall for a permanent picture show—it be seen that there should be no necessity for calling up a rate.

A correspondent recently suggested that the Borough Council should peruse and revise the borough by-laws. We think it would be advantageous and instructive if the new council set aside an evening to read and discuss them. If the by-laws are faulty they should be amended, but the council should see that they are not ignored and treated as a dead letter.

Mr R. S. Abraham, a candidate for a seat on the Wellington Harbour Board, publishes a notice re his candidature elsewhere in this issue. Mr Abraham points out that hitherto the pastoralists in this district have had to depend upon city representation, and when it is considered that the wool export alone from Wellington during the month of January last amounted to close on 150,000 biles, the importance of the Postoralists’ interest is manifest. Personally Mr Abraham can claim a very intimate and long standing connection with this interest as well as other pastoral and agricultural concerns, and in addition has had an experience of financial matters and local Government administration extending over a period of upwards of 30 years. It will be seen, therefore, that Mr Abraham, with Mr Cohen as a colleague, should “ meet the bill ” as tnis district’s representatives on the Wellington Harbour Board, Both gentlemen occupy responsible positions in the commercial life of this important district, and as Mr Abraham points out the pastoral interests require greater representation on the Board than at present obtains.

The Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce is advocating the establishment of a bond store in that town, and has appointed a sub-committee to go into the matter and ascertain what firms would store goods in bond and to what extent per annum. This information is being gathered in order to give an estimate to the Minister for Customs of the amount of duty that would be paid if a bond store were established. Some months back the local Chamber of Commerce made repeated applications to the Minister to have Foxton declared a port of entry for dutiable goods

and eventually secured a promise that if it could be shown that a sufficient amount of duty would be collected annually at Foxton at a reasonable cost the Minister would take steps to have the Chamber's request acceded to. With this promise before it the Chamber communicated with the merchants and storekeepers in Palmerston North and the surrounding towns with a view to ascertaining the amount paid in duty annually in this district, which would be paid in Foxton if a bond were established, and although, from general information, the Chamber was convinced that the amount of duty which would be collected would be sufficient to induce the Minister to allow a bond store to be established locally, the tradespeople approached did not evince sufficient interest in the proposal to supply the information asked for and the Chamber was reluctantly compelled to let the matter drop. Everyone will agree that if a bonded store is to be established for this distiict the proper place for same is at a seaport. We think that if the Palmerston Chamber would join with Foxton in an endeavour to have this port constituted a port of entry for dutiable goods there would be a greater possibility of their efforts being successful, as a port is much more suitable for a bonded store than an inland town. We would suggest that a meeting be convened to discuss this matter, and incidentally to resusitate the Chamber of Commerce.