The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1914. THE CUSTOMS ACT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 27, 2 February 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1914. THE CUSTOMS ACT.

Certain provisions of the now Customs Act, which comes into operation on April Ist of this year are not finding favor with traders generally, and Ivory reasonable objection may be made to some of the regulations, par- . ticnlarly so far as country districts are concerned. So far as importers |are concerned outside the seaports, (each amendment of the regulations iappears to be more inconveniencing than the previous methods. One instance may be cited which is clearly in this direction. Some years ago' I inland importers were permitted to i'make the necessary declaration as to t ■ i fthc value of shipments before a Jus[tice of the Peace, and on the docu-' men I so declared being forwarded to ■ the Customs official at the port of unloading, the goods were passed j !through upon it. This procedure! I) was changed for no particular reason, I'and an amendment made providingthat the Postmaster in any town': .should be the only person before whom .'a Customs declaration could bo made. l I'The Postmaster in a town such as ■'Stratford, is a busy man and not al-i j ways available when required. Tin's; (therefore was a step to the bad so! jfar as the country merchants are conlearned. The new Act, however,!

only permits the declarations referred t0,.,t0 bo made before a solicitor or nn officer of the Customs. Importers) -.consider this will confine them prac-| tically to the Customs officer, and) while proving most inconvenient to! a large boclv of traders will impose,I I In great deal mere work on the Cus- | joins officials themselves, and whereas in many very small centres—there! lis neither a resident solicitor iv Cos-1 ftoms officer, and the Postmaster isj the only public official, importing direct will apparently have io be given up, In various parts of the country! the Chambers of Commerce are eon--sidering the matter with a view oil approaching the Minister and endeavoring to have this proposed alteration of procedure set aside or! improved upon.

Bates, "thru tlipy do not uphold your contention that the rainfall is less now than it was twenty years ago. !n Wellington and Ihc other chief centres we have records going back over sixty years, but as fas as I can see no definite cycle can be propounded from them, and in no ea.se is it shown, except in individual year:-, that the rainfall is 'ess now than it was twenty or even sixty years ago. It lias been suggested that the destruction of forest growth in a country lias had tin* effect of diminishing the rainfall, but this has been proved scientifically ineor-j rect. Because; heavy rains are .experienced in countries such as the West Coast, where dense bush exists, and a sparse rainfall takes place in the East Coast district, where there is practically no bush, does not prove that the bush attracts more rain. The bush is the effect, and not the cause, of the intense rainfall." Mr Bates is undoubtedly scientifically accurate in' 'describing the dense forests of the West Coast as the effect |of the rainfall, and not its cause. Nevertheless, practical experience readies the man on the land that a countryside which is denuded of thick forest and vegetable growth loses the rainfall more quickly, and does not retain water as it formerly did, and in consequence sometimes there is too much and sometimes too little water available'.