Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Trade And Customs Department

Trade And Customs Department.

The Customs duties being the chief source of revenue of the Colony, and the Tariff being of a complicated character and abounding in anomalies, the department is one in which the officers have to be ever on the alert to check smuggling and the evasion of duties by false entries. New Zealand has great advantages in its extensive seaboard and numerous harbours, but this advantage adds greatly to the expense of the Customs Department; for while New South Wales and Victoria can collect all their dues at the ports of Sydney and Melbourne, New Zealand has to maintain staffs at no less than sixteen ports of entry, and there are also thirteen officers-in-charge or coast-waiters at less important ports. The New Zealand Tariff is, moreover, of so complicated a nature that there is considerable conflict at times between the importers on the one side and the Customs officials on the other as to the interpretation of it; and with a view of protecting the revenue and having some definite ruling power in this respect, Mr. G. V. Shannon is employed as Customs expert to interpret the meaning of the Act, and decide upon the duties leviable on disputed items. It cannot be claimed that the present system is popular, for while the consumers are taxed to the utmost, the Protectionists are by no means satisfied with the benefits they claim they have a right to expect. But so far as the administration of the Customs is concerned there is no fault to be found. The officers perform their duties loyally as the law directs, and the performance of them often leads to arduous searches for suspected private stills in secluded districts, which only too frequently are rewarded with failure. In the same department the trade of the Colony is fostered by endeavours to promote new industries and reciprocity with other colonies. Any endeavours in this direction have not as yet been rewarded with any success worthy of notice, but hopes are entertained of a profitable exchange of products with other colonies, and foreign markets which will be of advantage to the Colony.

The Hon. J. G. Ward, Commissioner of Trade and Customs, is referred to on page 47.

Mr. William Thompson Glasgow, Secretary and Inspector of Customs, Secretary for Marine and ex-officio Chief Inspector of Distilleries, has been an officer of Customs for nearly thirty-five years. Mr. Glasgow's father, the Rev. A. D. Glasgow, of the Irish Presbyterian Church, was a missionary in India, where the subject of this notice was born. He was educated in Ireland, and came to New Zealand per ship “Derwent Water,” in 1861. In the same year he joined the Government service as a clerk in the customs. In 1872 Mr. Glasgow was appointed to take charge of the New Zealand Distillery Company, in Dunedin, on behalf of the Government. After three years he was appointed landing waiter in the same city, and afterwards filled the same office in Invercargill. In 1880 Mr. Glasgow was for a short time acting landing surveyor in Auckland, and was promoted to be chief clerk at the head office, Wellington. For the year ending June 30th, 1888, he held the office of Secretary and Inspector of Customs, and afterwards was Collector of Customs, at Wellington, till May 1st, 1892, when he was permanently appointed to the offices he now
Mr. William Thompson Glasgow

Photo by Wrigglesworth and Binns.

page 163 holds, on the retirement of Mr. H. S. McKellar. In musical matters Mr. Glasgow has long been prominent. Of the first Wellington Choral Society he was a vice-president, and for some time acted as secretary of the Harmonic Society, and of both these societies he was a performing member. In February, 1883, Mr. Glasgow married Miss Younger, a daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Younger, of North Shields. His family consists of three daughters, and one son.

Mr. Thomas Larchin, Chief Clerk in the Customs Department, was born in 1838, in Surrey, England. He was educated at King's College, London, and learned the business of a brewer with his father's firm in “the world's metropolis.” Coming to New Zealand in 1864, per ship “Charlotte Jane,” to Bluff Harbour, he became a teacher under Government and had charge of the Waimea West School, and subsequently, of Westport, one of the largest schools in Nelson province. Mr. T. R. Fleming, M.A., LL.B., now Inspector of Schools, was one of Mr. Larchin's pupils at Westport, and it was then that he gained his first scholarship; the school proved its efficiency by gaining the provincial reading prize. Retiring in 1878, Mr. Larchin joined the Customs at Westport as writer, and in the following year was transferred to the head office in Wellington. Mr. Larchin was appointed in 1880 to take charge of the beer duty work as an expert, for which his early training well qualified him. He was appointed chief clerk by Sir Julius Vogel in 1887. Mr. Larchin is a member of the Masonic fraternity, E.C. Joining Mr. Egmont Lodge in 1869, he afterwards transferred to the Phoenix Lodge, Westport, of which he was W.M. He is now a member of the Wellington Lodge, 1521, of which he is a “P.M.,” and has held the position of Past District Grand Senior Warden. In his earlier years Mr. Larchin was fond of cricket, rowing, and boxing, and still takes great interest in these pastimes. Mr. Larchin was married in 1870 to Marie Louise Pheney, neé Donnini, and has two children, one daughter and one son. The son is a second officer in the service of the New Zealand Shipping Company.

Other Officers.

Clerks, Customs— H. J. Marsh, G. Craig.

Audit—H. W. Brewer, H. Crowther (writer). Cadet—G. Sinclair.