CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4914, 21 December 1876, Page 2

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The quarterly general meeting of the Chamber of Commerce was held in the Chamber yesterday, when there .-was a large attendance of members. Mr. G, Hunter took the chair, in the absence of Mr. Levin. ' : MINUTES. ■ ■ The minutes of the last meeting were duly read and confirmed. , ' FINANCIAL. . ..The Chairman stated that the Chamber had a balance at the Union Bank of £2O, and that a sum of £2OO had been deposited with the Wellington Trust, Loan, and Investment Company. RESIGNATION OF MR. LEVIN. The following letter was read Wellington, Nov. 8, 1876.—Dear Sir. —Will you be good enough to place before your committee my resignation as Chairman of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce —I am yours faithfully, W. H. Levin.— S. Carroll, Esq., Secretary Wellington Chamber of Commerce. The rules of the Chamber provide that the Chairman shall be elected by ballot in the month of March of each year. At the suggestion of Mr. Hunter, the matter was allowed to stand over till March next. DEBTORS AND CREDITORS' ACT. In reference to rules under the. Debtors and Creditors Act, 1876, some correspondence which had taken place between the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Justice was read. In the first place Mr. Carroll read the following letter:— “Department of Justice, . “Wellington, November 8, 1876. Sir, —I have the honor to forward for the information of the Chamber of Commerce a draft of the FJS? 08 sd rules under the Debtors and Creditors Act, 1876, and shall be obliged if you will forward to me as soon as passible any suggestions which the Chamber may wish to make.—l have, Ac., . ' “Chab. C. Bowen.” Xhe following letter was received from the same department on a later date:- „ . . , “ Wellington, Nov. 18,1876. Sir,—Adverting to the letter of the Hon. the Minister of Justice, of the Bth inst., I have the honor to inform you, by his direction, that as the Judges of the Supreme Court are now assembled in Wellington at the sitting of the Court of Appeal, it would oblige the Government if the draft bankruptcy rules forwarded to the Chamber of Commerce for suggestions were returned at once, with any that the Chamber have to offer. “(Signed; E. G. Fountain, Under-Secretary.” The rules were returned, being accompanied with the following letter:— “ Wellington, Nov. 27, 1876. Sir,—l have the honor, by instruction of my com'mlttee, to acknowledge the receipt of the letter of the Hon. the Minister of Justice, dated the Bth Inst., and , of your letter dated the 18th inst.. in reference to the proposed rules under the Debtors and Creditors Act 1876. The draft rules have been laid before the committee, and have received their careful consideration, and I am directed to say that they have not any -suggestions to make in reference to them. “S. Carroll.” “To the Under-Secretary.” The Chairman stated that the matter had been considered by .the committee appointed, and evidence was taken; but the committee were of opinion that the Chamber could offer no suggestions in the meantime. SAN.-FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE. The following letter in reply to one sent by order of the Chamber was read:— “ General Post Office, “Wellington, November 14,1876. “ Sir, —I have been directed by the Hon. the Post-master-General to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the Bth instant, forwarding a copy of a resolution passed at a meeting of your Chamber, held on the 3rd instant, to the effect that the Wellington Chamber of Commerce is of opinion that the New Zealand port of call for the San Francisco mail steamers (if limited to one) should be Auckland, and not the Bay of Islands.—l have, &0., “ W. Grat, Secretary., “ W. H. Levin, Esq., Chairman, - " Chamber of Commerce, Wellington." VICTORIAN HUMANE SOCIETY. The Seohetary read the following letter, received’ on the 9th of the present month;— “ Victorian Humane Society, “ 15. Collins-st. W., Melbourne. Nov. 24, 1876. Sir, —I have the honor to state for your inf rotation that the directors of the Victorian Humane Society respectfully request the co-operation of yourself and the members of the association over which you preside, in order to secure if possible uniform legislation in the matter of providing the most efficient and approved life-saving apparatus on board all vessels registered in the Australian colonies and New Zealand.

“ The directors being sensible of the unsatisfactory state of the law in Victoria on this subject, have presented a petition to the Premier, the Hon. Sir James McCulloch, praying that steps may be taken to' compel Victorian shipowners to provide sufficient and more efficient life-saving apparatus on board their vessels.

“The directors desire that the law should be amended, so that passenger and other vessels may be compelled to carry a supply of life-saving appliances in proportion to the number of passengers, &o. “The present’law only requires that a specified number of boats and two life buoys be provided to the registered tonnage without reference to the number of persons on It The many disastrous shipwrecks have clearly piuved how inadequate are the measures taken for the - wervation of the lives of the crews and passengers of the unfortunate, vessels that have been unable to weather the severe gales to be met in Hie Australian waters. , '

“The Government have promised to give the subject a careful consideration, and to elicit all available information, with the object of legislating upon this most important subject. ' 1 “It is evident, however, that the efforts of the directors of the Victorian Humane .Society, will be comparatively futile unless the co-operation of the other colonies is obtained, so as to secure uniform legislation. “The directors have suggested to the shipowners the desirability, of providing a sufficient number of cork life-jackets on board all their vessels,. the cost of which may be covered by charging each person a small fee for the advantage secured. “ The importance of this subject is so great that the directors request you will be good, enough -to -urge upon the Gov mment of New Zealand to bring the same before the conference of: representatives from the various colonies who will shortly meet in Melbourne.

1 “ The directors will be glad to be informed of.any action taken in this matter, which, from its serious naturel it is hoped may be dealt with promptly.—l' have, &c, “J. Ellis Stewart, “ Hon. Sec. " The President Chamber of Commerce, Wellington, New Zealand.” Mr. Bannatyne moved that the letter be referred to the committee. Seconded by Mr. Mills, and carried. A PROTEST PROM GREYTOWN. • The Secretary read the following letter from residents in the Wairarapa:— “Greytown, October 30, 1876. “ Sir, —We have the henor to draw your attention to a matter of considerable importance, not only to ourselves, business men in general, but the public at large, and which, if allowed to be recognised in business circles, must tend to a very great extent to lessen the confldence and faith which the public have in their business men, merchants in particular. “In the Evening Post of the 3rd October instant an advertisement appeared, signed by George Thomas, of Wellington, auctioneer, trustee in the estate of William Anderson, late of Greytown, a debtor, stating that certain debts owing to that estate would be sold by public auction at Greytown on the 6tb October instant. “ The debts to be sold, with the names of the parties said to be indebted, were particularly set forth in the advertisement. “ No application was made since William Anderson hied his statement of bis inability to pay his debts, to several of the persons whose names were so advertised, for payment of the amounts set opposite their names, although 'application was made to other persons indebted to the estate; and, moreover, several of the persons whose names were advertised actually held receipts for the amounts which it was stated they owed to the estate; and others, when demanding from Mr. Thomas an explanation of his reason for adopting such an unusual course of proceeding, obtained from him a promise to erase their names from the list of debtors.

“ Such a course as that adopted by Mr. Thomas for realising debts owing to the estate of a bankrupt, appears to us to be highly irregular and improper, and one which deserves the censure of all business men.”

“As we,understand that Mr. Thomas is a member of your Chamber, we must request that you will lay the matter before the next meeting of that Chamber, and we trust Its members will mark their disapproval of the action taken by Mr. Thomas in most unmistakeable terms, as such action on the part of Mr. Thomas, as a member of the Chamber, must in a measure, unless expressly disapproved of by the other members, reflect on the whole Clumber.” Signed by F. Mountai i and thirty-seven others. In reply to the above letter the Secretary sent the following:— “ Wellington, November 24, 1876. “Gentlemen, —X have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 30th October, complaining of the action of Captain Thomas in advertising for sale by public auction certain book debts in a bankrupt estate, and setting forth iu the advertisement the namesof all the parties said to be so indebted. Your letter has -been brought under the notice of the committee, and will be laid before the next general

meeting of members. " S. Carroll." The Chairman stated that Mr. Carroll had also shown the letter to Mr. Thomas, who had intimated his intention of being present. It was decided that nothing further could be done in the matter at that meeting, Mr. Thomas being absent, and it was understood that the Secretary would write to Greytown representing the fact to the gentlemen whose names were appended to the letter in which complaint was made of the action taken by Captain Thomas. WRECK OP THE OTAGO—A CAPTAIN’S RESPONSIBILITIES. Mr. Hunter said there was a subject upon which he thought it was right that the Chamber of Commerce should pass some expression of opinion. He referred to the inquiry into the loss of the steamer Otago, the result of which those present would no doubt remember. Ho regarded the decision arrived at by the Court as extremely unsatisfactory: and further, his experience had been that all such inquiries assumed that character. He spoke, of course, with deference to the opinions of others : but his opinion was that a captain was not justidedln trusting his vessel to the care of an officer whom he knew to be incompetent, as was the case in the particular instance to which he was now referring. He had introduced : the subject, because he thought it was the duty of the Chamber to take it up, and make some representation in the interests of the public. Heavy losses followed one after the other, and he thought in many instances the cause was to be found in a want of proper care. In the case of the Otago, he had given the evidence fair and impartial consideration, and could only come to the conclusion that the captain was not altogether free from blame. Mr. Bannatynb felt very much sympathy with Captain Caldei, because he knew him to be a very careful man, and he was in the unpleasant position of having an Incompetent officer under him. They mustrecollect that the captain of a.steamer was like other

men, that he required a certain amount of could not be constantly oh deck:Ho was necessarily in the difficult‘position of having, to. leave his vessel and the lives of the people on hoard to’ the mercy of an officer who, it was admitted, was incompetent to act in the moment of danger. Experience had shown that losses such as that referred, to had been occasioned by neglecting to uso the lead line, and he believed in this Instance that the vessel might have been saved if, soundings had been taken. : „ . , , Captain Williams said that he was well acquainted with Captain Calder, having travelled with him on several occasions, and had found him to be a roost carefol and steady man. In reference to the mate of the vessel, he remarked that it was to break a man in at once. He agreed with what the previous speaker had said as to losses in. stances being occasioned by neglecting to uso the lead line, which seemed to bo left entirely put of the question in handling these coastal steamers. He thought that it should be made imperative that no vessel should proceed more than a quarter of an hour in a thick fog without heaving the lead. . Mr. Dransiteld was of opinion that the censure, it any were necessary, should rest, upon the owners, because they appointed the captain and officers, ana he gathered’from the report that the owners were acquainted with the second mate’s inefficiency, ihe captain should not have had forced upon him the services of an officer of whom he didn’t approve. Speaking of previous losses sustained by Messrs. McMeckan, Blackwood, and Co„ he said that If those present were to look back they would possibly And that the company themselves had not been free from blame In the selection of their officers. ’Captain yriLUAua said that it was the duty of a captain to report to the company on finding that an officer was Incompetent, when such officer would be discharged. . ’Mr. Duncan did not wish to throw any blame on Captain Calder, but speaking, generally thought it would be well if the custom were introduced of slackening the speed of the steamers when thick fogs were experienced. Captain Mclntyre did not know whether the report of the enquiry which had appeared in the local papers was correct; but he might be permitted, as a practical man, to say a few words on the subject. Captain Calder, it seemed, bad been a considerable time on deck, and a man could not be continually a work. According to the report, he left strict instructions with the second mate to call him in case of any change in the weather, particularly if. there should be a fog, which was frequently experienced on that part of the coast. Therefore he concluded that the mate was entirely to blame, having failed to act in accordance with tno captain's instructions. Ho doubt a good deal might be said as to the captain being responsible'for the actions of an officer whom he knew to be incompetent; but then it must be recollected that a master of a vessel was often compelled to retain the services of officers who might be inefficient, but of whom he know nothing absolutely derogatory As regarded stopping the vessel under the circumstances suggested by Mr. Duncan, it might bo a wise course in Cook Strait; hut where the vessel only had land on one side, as on the southern coast of New Zealand, the safest course was to Jceep the vessel well to sea. He failed to see' how Captain Calder could be said to have been to blame under the circumstances. No other member of the Chamber appearing to wish to speak os the subject, Mr. Hunter remarked he hoped some good might result from the discussion which had taken place. %

THE CARRIAGE OV'QUNPOWDER. Mr., Hunter drew attention to a statement which had appeared in the New Zealand Times as to the carelessness joccasionally displayed in.carrying gunpowder through. the streets.,ami referred to a particular example observed recently. In this instance the powder was actually uncovered, and Mr. levy could bear out what he said. The extreme danger to whichlife andpropertywcre thus exposed had induced him to bring the matter before the Chamber, as it was necessary that there should be some regulation to enforce the exercise of greater caution in handling explosive substances. . Mr. Duncan said he had seen the waggon spoken of by Mr. Hunter containing the powder, and he considered it a mercy that the greater part of Wellington had not been blown up. Mr. L. Lew observed that the danger was scarcely so great as Mr. Duncan had depicted: the tarpaulin had been taken-off by the man in charge of the waggon for the purpose of repairing!!, and the powder barrels were exposed for a ti * e: but he must say, : in justice to the driver, that he put the covering on again immediately it was repaired. . Captain Mclntyre said something should certainly be done in the direction of compelling greater caution in conveying- powder from one place to another in town andconntry. .Vessels carrying powder were notallowed to - come -alongside the wharf,' and a loss of time was occasioned by their having to lie out in the stream; and if was ridiculous therefore that proportionate, regard to the safety of life and property should not, ,be observed on shore, the fact being, as they saw, that Urge quantities of powder were carried throngh the town indifferently. He thought a magazine might be bnllt in some part the hay, to which the powder could bo shipped , direct: or a floating magazine, as at Port Chalmers, might be better still. Mr. Bannatyhe moved,—That the matter be referred to the committee to deal with it, and make some representation to the Government. Mr. Pearce fancied that Captain Mclntyre’s remarks might be taken as implying a doubt as to the propriety of the regulations in respect to ships carrying powder, and he hoped that the Chamber did not take that view, as they were very necessary. He referred to the explosion in London not long ago on Begent’a .Canal,, which, but for a lucky accident, might have been terribly disastrous: and the same thing might occur here any time. -He hoped the Chamber would represent the matter very forcibly to the Government and the city authorities. He then seconded Mr. Bannatyne’s motion. Carried unanimously. Captain Mclntyre explained that in speaking of the wharf regulations he was merely drawing a comparison, and remarked that he was fully alive to the fact that'too much care could not be exercised in handling powder, whether on shipboard or on shore. Mr. Hunter called the attention of the Chamber to another subject of considerable importance, namely,.that arrangements had been made by which the arrival of all English vessels at the different ports of New Zealand will, from ihe first of next month, be. reported lin England, .as they bad. been for seine time past from Australia. He had had some correspondence with the secretary at Lloyds on the subject; and the arrangement which had been, come to was one upon which they might congratulate themselves, as great anxiety had been experienced by people at Home from ignorance of the arrival of vessels at their destinations, Lloyd’s agents at the different ports will report the arrivals to the office in ■Wellington, and the information will be' forwarded through one focus, namely, Wellington. As showing the necessity of this course being adopted, he . read the following letter, which be , bad received from a correspondent in London, touching on the question:—"Since our last the * Doctors ’ .at Lloyds managed to run the Commissary, up to twenty-five guineas per cent., and to drive those having friends and relations en board to great distress because this vessel’s arrival had not been telegraphed Home from Wellington. Even the NeWf Zealand Shipping Company, who loaded her, shook their heads and said it looked serious. They telegraphed out on‘the 4th inst. to know if any news was to be bad, andeveryone was in great consternation, when suddenly a telegram came from Sydney to say that the vessel had arrived there, after having discharged her cargo at Wellington. Cannot you use your influence with Lloyds to have all vessels telegraphed Home. This'is the- second time that the • Doctors ’ have worried ua all with their excitement. First was the Kinfauns Castle, and now the Commissary ; and, a telegram in either case would have saved many many times its cost, besides preventing an amount of anguish that is better imagined than described. We leave the matter in year-hands as agents for Lloyds.” . , MOTION BY MR. PEARCE. Mt.' Pearoe moved, Mr. Duncan seconded, and it was carried, that a list of those gentlemen who had held office as Chairmen of the Chamber in past years be prepared. ' number or QUORUM. It was agreed, on the motion of Mr. Pearce, that the next general meeting be made a special meeting for the purpose of altering Buie 20, to the effect that the number of members to form a quorum be 9 instead of 15. He pointed out that members who were punctual in their attendance at meetings frequently had to wait some time in consequence of the rules making it necessary that fifteen members must be present before a meeting could be held. THE WATER SUPPLY. Mr. Hunter alluded to the practice which had obtained ,of lata of, turning off the water at night, and thought that the Corporation should provide a supply during the night in case of fire. There were ugly minors about that there wonld be no water when the need for it was most necessary. Mr. Mills stated that the Council had arranged that a man should be In readiness to turn the water on when an alarm was given. Mr. Bannatyne thought the public should exercise a little more philanthropy in the use of the water during summer months, and remarked on the manner in which some persons wasted the water. He had seen persons allow the water to run over their gardens for three or four hours at a stretch, which was very much to be regretted, considering that the water was required for domestic use. Mr. Pearce thought the Corporation very much to blame for having delayed the work of extending the supply, but he held that they were justified In cutting the water off at night with’ the object of securing a reserve. Mr. Hunter observed that there could be no harm in representing the matter to the City Council. As ratepayers they had a right to insist upon being provided with a proper supply of water. He suggested that while the water was cut off a man should be stationed In readiness to turn it on at the first alarm of fire. They know that in the case of the fire at Messrs. Turnbull’s store the want of a lull supply was severely felt. It was decided that the committee bo requested to make representations to the Corporation as to the necessity of doing something In the direction pointed to by Sir. Hunter. ' APPOINTMENT OF AUDITORS, On the motion of Mr. Bannatyne, Messrs. McTavlsh and Meek were appointed auditors. NEW MEMBERS. The following gentlemen were duly elected and added to the list of members:—Messrs. J. Martin, W. James, B, Gardner, and Captain Bose. This concluded the business.