Report of Committee.

The Committee beg to submit their Report on the principal subjects which have come before them for consideration during the past year.

Amendment of Bankruptcy Law.

In March last the Hon. the Minister of Justice invited by circular opinions from the various Chambers in the Colony upon the proposd alteration in the existing Bankruptcy Law. A Sub-Committee was appointed to consider them, and, by invitation, two legal members of the Chamber, Messrs. W. D. Stewart and R. Stout, were asked to take part in their deliberations. Various alterations were suggested and embodied in a report by the Committee forwarded to the Minister of Justice, copies of which were also sent to the different Chambers for their consideration and approval. The views of the Chamber were very ably supported in the Assembly by Mr. H. S. Fish. The Bill passed by the House of Representatives is, in the opinion of the Committee, a good, workable measure; likely to remove the glaring defects on the previous Law of Bankruptcy. A very cordial vote of thanks was accorded to Messrs. Stewart and Stout for the valuable aid afforded by those gentlemen in the preparation of the report of the Committee.

Otago Central Railway.

The following resolution of the Chamber was brought before the Hon. the Minister of Public Works in November last:—"That a deputation of the Chamber wait upon the Hon. the Minister of Public Works upon his arrival in Dunedin to urge upon him the desirability of pushing forward the works of the Otago Central Railway with expedition and despatch." This was strongly urged by the deputation who waited upon the Minister. The Committee regret that, notwithstanding the promise of the Minister of Public Works, so small a sum has been expended in pushing on this most important work during the past year. The Committee are now enabled to state that there appears to be a better disposition on the part of Government to construct a further section of the line. A sum of £130,000 has been placed upon page 6 the Estimates for the extension of the Railway, and there is now a better prospect of this arterial line being pushed on with greater energy than has been the case during the past three years..

Harbour Board.

Several conferences with the Harbour Board have been held for the purpose of assisting the Board in the removal of the differential dues between Port Chalmers and Dunedin, for the increase of the Board's revenue by raising the rates of wharfage, and in other ways aiding the Board in obtaining additional revenue. The Committee have strongly opposed the imposition of an export rate on interprovincial cargo, believing it to be an unnecessary restriction on the coastal trade of the Province. The Committee have given their support to the Board in their efforts to give greater despatch to vessels in the discharge of cargo. A resolution of the Chamber on this subject has been energetically given effect to by both the Harbour Board and the Railway Department—and one great source of complaint by the masters of vessels visiting this Port is now in course of removal. The Sub-Committee's resolution on this subject, as also those on the proposed reconstruction of the Harbour Board, are appended.

Stock Exchange.

Shortly after the last General Meeting the Committee invited the Stock and Share Brokers of the city to meet them in conference for discussion of details of the proposed Stock Exchange, the necessity for which had previously been affirmed by the Chamber. The Committee regret that nothing came of the attempt, the Brokers generally preferring a continuance of the present mode of carrying on their business to that suggested by the Chamber.

Public Auditors.

This subject has been discussed, and the general advisability affirmed that provision should be made for securing that the accounts and balance-sheets of all Public Companies and Corporate Bodies should be audited by persons duly qualified and licensed for the purpose, and that this is necessary for the protection of the general public, and that it is not adequately provided for at present.

Telephone Charges.

The Committee brought under notice of the Chamber at its last meeting the excessive charge made by the Telephone Department for the use of their instruments. The Committee laid their views before the Hon. Mr. Dick, the Minister for Post and Telegraphs, strongly arguing a reduction from the present charge of £17 10s. to £10 for places of business, and £5 for private houses. In the Assembly, Mr. Fish moved for, and obtained, the appended return; and on the motion of Mr. Hurst, Member for Auckland, a Committee was appointed to consider the whole question; from the report of the Committee subscribers may confidently look for a considerable reduction At the present time Dunedin has 229 Subscribers to the Telephone Exchange.

The Agent General.

The Resolution conveying the thanks of the Chamber to Sir Francis Dillon Bell for his services to the Colony was forwarded in a letter from the Chairman in March last. This with its acknowledgment by Sir Francis, the Committee deem of sufficient importance to embody in the Report of the Proceedings of the Chamber.

Direct Steam Service.

During the past year a commencement has been made of a Direct Steam Service between New Zealand and the Mother Country. Several magnificent steamers have been despatched by the New Zealand Shipping Company, to whose enterprise the Colony is indebted for the inauguration of a regular monthly line of steamers. It is to be hoped that the Assembly will offer such a substantial subsidy as will ensure the continuance of a large class of steamers, rendered more necessary now if the Colony is to attract to its shores a class of immigrants hitherto deterred by the lengthened voyages of sailing ships.

The Postal Union.

The Committee regret that the Government have not seen their way to join with other Australian Colonies in obtaining reduced and uniform postal rates, through the entrance of New Zealand with the other Colonies of Australasia into the Universal Postal Union. The loss of revenue to which the Hon. the Minister objects, the Committee believe would be found to be much less than he expects, owing to the increase in correspondence which has invariably been found to arise from a reduction in the rates of Postage.

Average Bonds.

The controversy over the custody of Average Deposits, so far as Dunedin is concerned, may now be looked upon as settled. The resolution of the various Underwriters' Associations in Australia—that the form of bond approved by Lloyds' should be adopted, has been given effect to by the ready assent of the Masters and Agents, in a recent case of general average, to the placing of the Deposits to a trust account in the names of the Master, the Chairman of the Dunedin Underwriters' Association, and one of the Consignees.

Manufactures.

In estimating the value of our Exports it is necessary to take into consideration a fact of great importance that is very liable to be overlooked. The Committee refer to the great increase of our manufacturing industry as evinced in the returns from the Mosgiel, Kaiapoi, and Roslyn Woollen Mills, in which 5705 bales of wool have been worked up of the value of £74,800 during the past year. Of necessity, the Export Returns appear less by the value of the raw material consumed, but our local manufactures add materially to the wealth of the Colony.

Export of Frozen Meat.

The following statement shows the quantity exported and the growth of this new industry since its commencement in February of last year:—

Otago and Southland.

1882—	February, Dunedin	4,909	sheep
	May, Mataura	3,843	sheep
	September, s.s Marsala	8.506	sheep
	December, s.s. Sorento	5,841	sheep
1883—	January, Dunedin	8,002	sheep
	May, s.s. Festanton	7,840	sheep
	June, s.s. Ionic	9,600	sheep
	August, s. s. British King	7,680	sheep
	August, s. s. Opawa	6,546	sheep
	August, s. s. Lyttleton	6,295	sheep
		68,462
Chr church Shipments		30,709	sheep
Wellington Shipments		5,798	sheep
Auckland Shipments		7,850	sheep
Total		12,819	sheep

New Members.

The abolition of the entrance fee upon members joining the Chamber has fully met the expectations of those gentlemen who advocated the change. Seventy-two new members have joined during the past year. The withdrawals and removals leave a present membership of 222.

Daily Exchange.

The Committee regret to state that the efforts made to establish a Daily Exchange have thus far been a failure. The large hall has been opened to the public from 12 to 1 o'clock, free of charge, a privilege which has been very slightly appreciated by the general public. The Chamber is now well and liberally supplied with Home and Colonial newspapers. The telephone has been added for the convenience of members. With all these advantages the Committee cannot close this report without expressing a feeling of disappointment with the results obtained.

The Agent General.

Sir,—I have the honour, by request of the Chamber, to transmit to you the undermentioned resolution passed by the Chamber at its meeting held on Thursday last, the 22nd inst.

Embodying as it does the very favourable estimation in which your services as Agent General of the Colony are held, I trust you will have page 9 as much pleasure in receiving, as I have in conveying to you, this cordial expression of feeling on behalf of the commercial community of this city.—I have, &c.,

[Resolution.]

Resolved—" That a cordial vote of thanks be given to Sir Francis Dillon Bell for the success that has attended the floating of the £1,000,000 loan, for his able pamphlet on New Zealand finance, and his exertions in inaugurating a direct steam service with Great Britain."

Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter enclosing the resolution of the Chamber of Commerce, and I beg to return my grateful thanks to the Chamber for the honour they have done me.

The success of the million loan very likely appeared all the greater by comparison with the last financial operation we had to make. That the Colony should have been able only three years after giving, £120 of stock for £97 10s. in cash, to place a four per cent, loan at £98 12s. 6d., shows how much its credit had risen in the time. I am very grateful for the Chamber's appreciation of my own part in the business; but you may depend upon it that the real secret of our success was the confidence of investors in our good faith, and the belief in our determination to maintain economy and sufficient taxation as the true security of our finance.

As to the steam question, I confess to having devoted more pains to it than to anything else, except finance. We can hardly measure the good that would come to us from a properly established direct line, but the indispensable condition of any permanance in such an enterprise is that it should pay, which means that we must be willing to give reasonable help to it at first, though we ought to allow no monopoly of our trade to be set up.

With regard to my paper on the public debts, I could not see without great pleasure how widely attention became attracted to the wonderful facts I have attempted to record. A few minor points were disputed at the time with some acerbity, and I was prevented by a tedious illness from defending them as I should have liked; but it will not be long before I vindicate, in a second edition, the conclusions which had been impugned.

I thank the Chamber heartily for a recognition which has now to be added to the generous support and confidence I have always received from the Government. The time of my engagement is passing fast away, and my successor will soon be chosen. I trust it may be his good fortune, as it has been mine, to get, in what must always be a difficult and laborious work, not only the approval of the Ministers, but kindness and encouragement outside the official circle such as the Chamber has extended to me.—I have, &c.,

The President delivered the following Address:—

It now becomes my duty to move the adoption of the Report, and in doing so it will be expected that I should make some allusion to the numerous topics upon which it touches; I wish it to be understood that the Committee are in no way responsible for the opinions I am now expressing. I have given much time and thought to the business of the Chamber since the last meeting, and though I cannot congratulate Members upon an improved state of business, I see no reason for alarm. There is no doubt about the Colony having taxed its powers to the utmost extent—both by public and private borrowing—and as a matter of course the ill effects of this will have to be borne for a time. It is impossible not to feel the pinch arising from payment of large sums of money for interest on borrowed capital. But we can do this—we can hold our hands, borrow no further, and in the meantime manfully restrict our wants to our means of paying for them. If we do this we shall soon surmount our difficulties, and the cloud that now hangs over New Zealand will pass away, and we shall, be both better and wiser for the lesson we are learning. Our securities are good—we want time for the development of our resources, and, above all things, we want, a steady flow of the right sort of immigrants to utilise them; and these, I hope, we shall attain by the direct Steam Communication which has been so successfully inaugurated by the enterprise of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Bearing on this subject I would refer Members to the letter of Sir Francis Dillon Bell which is printed with the Report, and I would express the hope that such a subsidy, or such assistance by way of freight and passage money, will be offered by Parliament as will ensure a continuance of the service which the enterprise and liberality of the New Zealand Shipping Company have furnished to the Colony, or of some equally satisfactory line. If two can be supported, so much the better. We must have no monopoly. The Company that offers the best class of vessels suited to the wants of the Colony should receive the support of the Government. I hope we shall not see it defeated by a repetition of that misplaced economy, which for party purposes interfered with the appropriation Government proposed for the service last session.

In my former address I touched upon the depression that then existed in business circles. Trade has not improved since that time. I am sorry to say that I think it worse. The Treasurer in his Financial Statement drew attention to the large increase in our imports as one of the disturbing causes. That is an evil which will cure itself. Already the published statements show a decline, and from inquiries I have made, I look for a great diminution in our imports during the present financial year. We must not shut our eyes to the changes that are working amongst us. Large Joint Stock Companies are gradually absorbing or extinguishing the middle-men. Merchants, individually, are passing away, and their places are being taken by Joint Stock Companies possessing large capital, borrowed in the London market at one half the rates of interest our Bankers charge for the use of their page 11 capital. Against this no private enterprise can successfully compete. The profits are not spent in the Colony, but go to support a class of absentees whose only interests in the country are the dividends they are receiving from it. Whether or not Mercantile Companies of resident shareholders will meet these new conditions of trade is, as yet, an untried experiment. Another cause of the present dullness, is, in my opinion, due to the comparatively sudden changes in the value of land. This is partly owing to the competition of the Banks and Loan Companies when capital was abundant to advance on mortgage of landed securities. Speculation was thus encouraged, and large purchases were made in expectation of realising larger profits by selling in suitable allotments for small farmers. The action of the Government in throwing extensive areas open for selection on favourable terms for settlement has closed the door to land speculations, and instead of disposing of their purchases as expected, they still remain on the buyers' hands, and the money thus advanced remains locked up, and unavailable for commercial purposes. If we look at the extent of the mortgage indebtedness of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland collectively, amounting to £614,899,251, on which upwards of £1,000,000 has annually to be paid in interest by a population of 260,000. I think you will agree with me therefore, that the general depression is due not to over importation alone, but to the presence of those Joint Stock Companies amongst us, who have aided and stimulated an unwise speculation in landed estate, before we had a population to develope the resources of the country.

A large amount of public attention throughout the neighbouring Colonies has been given to the annexation of New Guinea and other Islands of the South Pacific. This question, which has been warmly taken up in Australia, is one that requires careful consideration by all who are interested in the spread of civilization and the growth of commerce in the Pacific. I am not prepared to discuss this question to-day, but I do ask you to watch with interest the progress it is making in Australia, and to be prepared to give a support to any Ministry who may advocate its adoption by the Parliament of New Zealand. The wider question of Federation is receiving much attention in the Home Country. Whether we shall form an integral part of that great Empire, or become an independent Federation of Australian States—that Greater Britain of the South which writers like to depict—time and experience will settle. In the meantime there is a subject that concerns us all, and which the various Colonies of Australia and New Zealand can arrange amongst themselves—and that is a Customs' Union by which the free interchange of the natural products and manufactures of each Colony may circulate freely between each State without the obstruction of Custom houses. I see no difficulty in carrying such a Customs' League through. We have the lines of the German Customs' Union to follow, and it is a matter of history that that great nation owes its formation to the successful carrying out of the scheme by which all intermediate Custom houses were swept away, and merchandise and manufactures within the States comprising the Union passed freely from one to the other, free page 12 from the injurious effects of the hostile tariffs which had previously set State against State. Take, for example, our trade with Australia. Last year we took from her £400,557 of imports, and we exported in return £339,723, chiefly in grain. The heavy duties imposed in Victoria prevent us from supplying that Colony with cheaper Cereals grown here. The duty we impose of fifteen per cent., for revenue purposes only, keeps out a large number of native products and manufactures with which Victoria could supply us as cheaply as from England or from other countries, were those duties between the Colonies abolished. Depend upon it, a great impetus would be given to the natural production of each Colony were steps taken for the early formation of such a Customs' league. A still further advance would be made in the formation of a Federal State of the Australian Colonies, and one which, whilst developing the natural products of the various States comprising it, would add to the comfort and prosperity of those who are founding great and prosperous Colonies in this Southern Hemisphere.

I must congratulate you on the success that has attended the shipment of frozen meat to Europe. We cannot but appreciate the labours of those amongst us, especially Messrs. It. Campbell, W. J. M. Larnach, and Jas. Shand, to whose efforts in carrying through the New Zealand Refrigerating Company in all its preliminary stages New Zealand is largely indebted, and whose services have been overlooked in the success of the enterprise. Since the initiation of this trade Otago has exported 62,167 first-class sheep, other Provinces have shipped 4-4,345, making a total of 106,575, and this without any appreciable rise in the prices obtainable for fat sheep in the open market, thus plainly showing the large stock we have to draw upon. With the experience gained, and with ordinary care in keeping up the standard we have attained, there is no placing limits at this time to the extent to which this trade may ultimately grow—or to the benefits likely to flow therefrom throughout New Zealand to all engaged in pastoral pursuits. I hope every effort will be made by those engaged in the trade to uphold the high character which has been secured for New Zealand frozen meat in the London market. In connection with this Export of Frozen Meat, I may mention the very satisfactory progress our Woollen Factories are making, and whose consumption is already affecting the export of wool. From returns obtained I find that during the past year 5605 bales of wool of the value of £74,800 have been worked up by the Kaipoai, Mosgiel, and Kaikorai Mills, and the value of the goods manufactured may very fairly be estimated at £250,000.

At our last Meeting I called attention to the high rates charged by the Telegraph Department for the use of the Telephone. So excessive did the Chamber think the rate, that they took steps to bring it before Parliament at the earliest possible period of the session, and I have to thank Mr. Fish for the energetic manner in which he took up the business. The question was referred to a Committee whose Report fully bore out the statement of the Chamber, and the result has been a recommendation in favour of the reduction page 13 in the rate charged equal to £5 0s. 0d. per annum on the annual charge previously paid by subscribers I think the Chamber have done good work by moving in this affair, and one which must lead to a generally extended use of the instrument, and to the increase of the revenue derivable from it.

I cannot close my remarks without referring to the heavy losses sustained by the agricultural interest during the past season. Over a large portion of this and the neighbouring Province of Canterbury heavy and continuous rains during the harvest spoiled a great part of the abundant crops which were gathered, and which have now been rendered unfit for consumption or for shipment to other markets. My own experience has shown me that we cannot always escape these visitations, but we can make better preparations for meeting them than were made last season, by greater care being given to stacking and thatching, and by a more generous use of the labour which is available at harvest time, and which, I fear, was not resorted to during the late harvest. There needs also some provision for drying damp grain to fit it for shipment.

I shall not weary you with a mass of statistics. You will find a number of returns bound up with the Committee's report, which have been carefully compiled from official sources, and to which I would refer members desirous of comparing our present progress with that of the past year. But I may refer with pride to the increased settlement that is taking place throughout this Province under the deferred payment and perpetual leasing of the amended land laws Acts of the colony, now being wisely and liberally administered by the present able Minister of Lands, Mr. Rolleston; under whose fostering care we may rest assured that full effect will be given to the leasing and sale of our remaining public estate. I may also refer to the large increase of our local industries, to the establishment of new mills and manufactories, and to the enlargement of others, and to the various occupations that have opened and are opening up for the employment of skilled labour. I sincerely trust the colony will continue to progress in all its material interests, that the difficulties which at present surround us may be surmounted, and that we may turn to good account the lessons of thrift which they are teaching us just now.

I now beg to move the adoption of the report.

Seconded by Mr. W. D. Stewart and unanimously adopted.