Chamber of Commerce.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4442, 31 March 1883, Page 2

Chamber of Commerce.

(Pee Pbess Association^

Weilingtom, Yesterday.

At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman adverted to the bankruptcy laws. He thought pro* ceedings such as those which bad been undertaken by bankrupts lately, in endeavoring to get clear from their liabilities when they were not justified in doing so, were certainly scandalous. Witb regard to the working of the licensing laws,.and more especially as to the power placed in the hands of local police constables in country districts, Government had* been communicated witb, and their reply was to the. effect that an Act was provided; that < the police should carry out its provisionl! strictly in every respect. This was, no doubt, the case,—but the general impression was that favor was shown in some cases while, the Act was unnecessarily enforced in others. He explained that the arguments he used on this subject at the last meeting of-the Chamber were not intended in any way to the use of alcohol,—that noy^ng a suit* able question for discussing flWhe Cham-1 ber,—his desire'was to show that temper' ance and total abstinence societies would probably succeed better in their endea* yours to suppress drunkrness if they worked to raise the status of the Licensed Victualler rather than by supporting the present system of police espionage and worry, which were fast driving alt men who respected themselves cut of the business. As to a direct steam service, the recent arrival of the British King showed that the service .would be carried on by boats fully competent for the work, and led to the inevitable conelusiou that Wellington would shortly become the chief distributing centre for the colony. It. was in a more favorable position to undertake; this work, and being the first port of arrival from England, goods would be landed here as cheaply and promptly as in Melbourne. It was desirable that Wellington should be provided with a dock, but it would be unwise for the Harbor Board to incur any heavy | expense until they had obtained their en» dowment, as the first aim of the Board should be to keep all charges as low as possible, and to make Wellington practi* cally a free port. Referring to the bank* ing returns of the 30th December last, Mr George said they found that the advances still snowed an increase on the September quarter, the advance being for New Zea* land £15.513.000 as against £15,057,000. In September, the deposits on the other side showed a diminution of £585,000 — the excess of advances over deposits being £6,268,000. The advances by the banks were larger by about £250,000 than at any period in the history of the colony. - fter referring to the imports and exports, Mr George went on to say that the accounts generally pointed to the conclusion that a return above the average on the grain harvest might be expected, and this being the case it was not necessarily a subject of apprehension that imports should be heavy and stock large. With an increase of population and the opening up of lands, imports must and should increase, and only caution was necessary to make certain that the requirements for these purposes were not pushed beyond a safe limit, thus causing excessive stocks and unremunerative prices. At present it seemed that bank pressure arose from merchants having unduly forced trade, and that land for agricultural or pastoral pur* poses was steadily rising in value.