New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-07
ACCOMMODATION NEEDED.

From the Congressional report Of the LIST inst
we learn that " Mr. Hhmlin moved to take up the
bill to amend the act regulating the collection o.
duties on imports. 1t alters the time in which
the cole ctor of port takes possession Of vessel
" from FIVE days to one" The motion was carried,
and the bill passed without discussion and without
attracting the attention it merits. Its provisions,
nevertheless, viii bear heavily up IN large class Of
merchants in all large se0ports, and especially In
this city.
Until permits are taken out at the Custom House.
for which heretofore five days have been allowed,
the merchandise remains on board ship; when that
period expires tuch goods have not been entered
are sent to the public store. The new law reduces
Ibis period of FIVE days, which possibly may be 8
day or two longer than is necessary, to single
day, which, in many cases, is certainly not SUI
ficient.
The expense Of carriage ard storage in the pubic
stone must frequently prove heavy tax upon the
owner of goods, who, if not resident of the port
where the ship arrives, may not be able, either in
person or by proxy, to get them through the Gus
t, m-House For example, A ship arrives at this
poit with an invoice of goods for house in Bali-
more or Boston, The invoice, if it comes by the
vessel as is very common, must be sent to the
owner Of the goods ard returned TO commission
merchant here before the goods can be entered
This will necessarily take two or three days. In
the mean time the chip passes into the hands Of The
officer, and all goods, as they come out, if nos
permitted" go to the public store There has
been 10 delay on the part of the owner. His goods
have been entered at the first possible moment;
nevertheless, be is put to heavy additional expense
Which, though, Of course not so intended, acts as
tax upon him for being nonresident. The INTO
raj effect will be that he will, if possible, have ha
goods shipped only TO the port where he resides,
where it may be sometimes possible for him to
comply with the law, and avoid the additional sx.
pense which be ia otherwise compelled to incur uu-
der it.
Nor is it only the nonresident merchant that the
law takes at disadvantage. 1t may work to the
serious injury of the local importer. Under the
PRESENT tariff, it is held that the duty upon goods is
TO be reekoned upon their value at the latest date
from the point of shipment AS for Instance: goods
may be bought at q certain prce-say 20 cents, for
account of merchant here, and
paid for in cash at The time purchase. Five days
afterward, the ship hat takes thtgn may sail, when
the goods have risen TO 25 cents. The goods then
must be entered not at the invoice price of 20 cents
at which they were actually bought but the price of
FIVE days later and failure TO do this subjects the
holder of the invoice TO heavy penalty. The time
allow ed by the old law to make his entry enabled
him to ascertain the price of bis goods when the
vessel sailed, and thus to guard against the posi-
bilty of mistake in his own estimate. But under
the new law, cases must often arise where the
merchant, unable to get within a few hours the
needed information, perhaps unable to get it at all
till tie vessels news shall be made public in the
next days papers, has TO choose between the pen.
ally of false entry, snd the expense Of having bis
goods sent to the public store.
The only persons who can be benefited BY this
legislation are the ship.Owners and the warehouse
men. 1t is for the interest of the shp-oWner that
his vessel should be discharged ~ soon possible,
and that the responsibility for goods which be has
to deliver to the owners should be
taken of his hands, And the more goods there are
10 60 TO the public stores, the greater is the demand
for storage. But just legislation never considers
The interest of class at the expense Of another.
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