CUSTOMS DELAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 47, 25 February 1939, Page 9

CUSTOMS DELAY

CUMBERSOME LICENSING REGULATIONS [ Per Press Association, j WELLINGTON, Feb. 24. Delay in getting goods through the Customs Department is causing concern to Wellington business men. One importer said that during the past few weeks it had taken live times as long to obtain clearances as it had in the past. He blamed what he described as the cumbersome licensing regulations. The delay is no reflection on the department’s officers, lu said. In fairness to them it should be stated that they are being sweated by the Government. There is no 40-hour week for them and some are working till 10 o’clock every night of the week. The officers, he addeu would have a full-time job clearing shipments in the usual way without having to endorse c»ach licence against the invoices. He had given the department papers for one shipment last Tuesday and had since been advised that the goods would not be available till next Monday. In th<meuntime, harbour dues for storage were mounting up. Formerly the goods would have been cleared in one day. If he had goods on two vessels in port at the one time, the delay was intensified because he had to wait till the first vessel was cleared before he could get his import licence back to submit it with the papers for the second vessel.

Another importer zaid that recently the wharf sheds had been choked with goods. The contributing cause of the ded«ay had been the fact that during the past two weeks there had been eight vessels in port —an unusually large number.