IMPORT LICENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1940, Page 6

IMPORT LICENCES

NEW PROCEDURE FOR FOURTH PERIOD HOPES OF MORE EXPEDITIOUS SERVICE. COMMENT BY MR J. H. CUNNINGHAM. “It is pleasing to note that the Minister of Customs proposes introducing a new procedure in the handling of fourth period import licences, namely, that for the year 1941 instead of the importing firms having to go through the agony of making up their applications for each six-monthly period, that if practicable, licences would be issued covering a full 12 months’ period,” stated Mr J. H. Cunningham, general manager of the W.F.C.A., Ltd., this morning, in an interview: “This will save the importers and also the Customs officials a good deal of unnecessary work,” said Mr Cunningham, “and also to some eliminate the lengthly hold-ups in the placing of orders. For instance, in the third period applications, in many cases months elapsed before the licences were granted, with the result that the orders could not be sent forward, and which meant delay in receipt of goods, with the possibility of seasonal goods arriving too late for the. requirements of the purchasing public. “If the sterling funds are available, and the licences dealt with expeditiously, it would appear that the English manufacturers can give prompt delivery,” he said. “An instance has just come before my notice of a line of goods licensed for the third period having been ordered by mail, the goods shipped promptly, and received in New Zealand waters within four months, and which indicated prompt handling by the English manufacturer and equally prompt shipment. It is gratifying to note the co-operation between the Minister and the Associated Chambers of Commerce, and which should remove many of the vexatious difficulties which have occurred hitherto.” ______