New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-06-13
THECUSTOMHOUSE
STATISTICS OF OUR COMMERCE
How Goods Are Entered and Revenue
Collected.
4 MODEL GOVERNMENT OFFICE

The system Of keeping the accounts and
tbs method of collecting duties is almost
idTnticaly the same as that devised by
Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary OF
the Treasury. Very few radical changes
have been made since bis administration,
though many improvements have been in
troduced and additional facilities granted
to the commercial interests Of the country.
The collection OF duties and supervision
of exports. of course, deyoives upon the
collector of the port. As correlative agents
Of the government, there are also sur
veyor and naval officer. The surveyor
directs and controls the inspectors. board
ing officers. bcatmen and watchmen. The
naval officer is required to keep duplicate
accounts of the customs collected by the
collector, and also Of the disbursements.
All entries of goods must be made in dupli-
cate. one copy being retained in the Gus
toms department. the other in the naval
office. All permits and reports require to
be signed by the collector or his deputy and
countersigned by the naval officer or his
deputy.
IN order to give clear idea Of the Gus
toms regulations in reference to importa.
tions. we will take a ship just as she enters
the mouth Of the river. An aid to the
revenue. or. as he is better know n, a board
ing officer. forthwith boards the vessel and
seals up all the hatehes. Formerly the board
ing officer never left the vessel until re.
lieved by the surveyor at the wharf here
1t has been found that the safeguard of
sealing the matches is just as etiicacous.
Arrived at the wharf here. the captain
enters his vessel at the Gust omhouse and
furnishes manifest OF the cargo. swOrn to
by him. The seals OF the ha,ches are broken
by the district officer. and an inspector is
put in charge Of the vessel and cargo. The
cargo being now ready for delivery, im-
porters make entries Of the merchandise
imported by them.
Entries are of various kinds, but those
generally used are impost entries, whereon
the duties are paid on arrival Of the goods
and delivery made imme diately; warehouse
entries, by Means Of which the goods are
stored in bonded warehouse. the owner not
being required to pay the duties except as
he withdraws his merchan disc; warehouse
and immediate transportation entries. on
which the duties are not collected at this
port but at the port to which the goods are
transported in bond. Nearly half Of the
business done at this port is of the last
class, SO that tho customs receipts are by
no means standard by whc b to judge of
the amount of business done at this port.
No duties are collected on goods exported,
though much work devolv es upon the en-
ployes in making those expectations. and
in making up statistical reports. The
amount Of bonded goods shipped to Mexi-
co alone during ths past four years amounts
to nearly $4,000, 900 in alue. on which the
duties, if paid here. would amount to over
100000. During the past year merchan.
die to the value Of $5.0O0.000 has been
transported in bond to St. Louis, Memphis.
Louisville and other Western cities. The
duties there amounted to over $2,500.OOO.
which was. of course, not collected here.
although most OF the work was performed
at this port.
During the year ending April 30. 1915,
the exports from this port amounted in
valus to So, es7 ,53s. The principal articles
and their values are as follows: