Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-10
CURACAO DUE
At SAN PERDO
EXPERT READY TO PREPARE
MEXICAN PAPERS
If Business Justifies, Steamer viii
Stop Regularly at San Pedro En-
Route to Mexico From
the North

"The Curacao will arrive in San
Pedro tomorrow morning and will clear
tomorrow night, even if one man has to
work for thirty-siX hours without stop
ping and / am that man." said T. b.
Hillard, customs broker and forward
ing agent, who came to Los Angeles
from San Francisco to prepare the pa
pers for the freight that is to be re-
ceived from local jobbers.
Mr.. Hillard is an expert on Mexican
tariffs and is probably better informed
concerning them than any man on the
Pacific coast. At the local office of
the Pacific Coast Steamship company
he told of the exacting rules of the
Mexican government as follows yes
terday:
"If freight is not shipped under the
proper papers it is likely to be con-
fiscated, or at least subjected to heavy
fine. The exact nature of each separ-
ate piece Of freight must be described
exactly as to what it is. 1t must be
billed as bales, pals, boxes, crates, bar
rels, trunks, etc. Not only that but
the letters and marks on the freight
must be described. The destination
must be given for each separate article
"The bills of lading must call for the
weight of the article to the pound. If
this is not done the goods may be con-
fiscated. Anyhow, they might be sub
jected to triple duty.
Language Very Strict
"The language of the bills of lading
is very strict. They must be made out
in Spanish, but not in regular Spanish,
but In the language of the Mexican
tariff.
1.-THE local merchants and jobbers do
not as yet realize how much work it
is to prepare these bills. In this case
I will make them out myself, and ex-
pect to put in thirty-six hours hard
labor, using about 900 pages of II and
10 inch paper, which will be completely
covered with writing. 1t is almost as
much work to prepare the goods re-
reived from one firm for Mexico or
South American ports as it Is to pre-
pare the bills for a whole cargo bound
for China or Japan or European ports
"As yet we cannot say just how
much freight will be received at San
Pedro tomorrow. The bills are coming
in slowly. In this instance the COM
pany has been very liberal. The rules
in San Francisco are that all goods
the date for sailing. The bills Of lad
ing cannot be received later than this
time. That gives us plenty Of time to
have them made out in the proper Ian
guage.
1.-THE merchants there have become
accustomed to the requirements Of the
Mexican government. and comply with
our rules. Here the sinaloa Land
company Is the only firm that fully un-
derstands these requirements"
Regarding the chances for securing
the services Of a steamer between San
Pedro and Mexico. Mr.. Hillard takes
an optimistic view. In discussing this
he said;
Great Possibilities
1--WE could not. Of course. expect as
much business on the first trip from
San Pedro as on later ones. II rs a
new thing for the people here. IF we
find that there is enough business here
to make II pay us for stopping at San
Pedro we certainly shall make that
port regularly.
"Of course It would be better still
If the business could be Increased so
that we could get a thousand-ton cargo
out OF San Pedro every month, and
then a regular ship would ply between
San Pedro and Mexico. It would not
take part Of the cargo at San Fran
cisco and part Of II here.
"I have seen in the newspapers that
we have been criticised for charging
the same rate from San Pedro as from
San Francisco. They say that 1t is a
days shorter sail from the latter place,
but Is IL? Stop and think. Not only
that, but It costs us fully $500 to make
that port. The men have TO be paid
for one days extra work and there ara
other charges"
II could not be definitely ascertained
yesterday how much freight will be re-
ceived by the Curacao today. as the
bills were coming in late last night. 1t
will probably receive the 100 tons, as
was originally planned,
The ship viii receive as many pas
sengers as can be accommodated,
which is about rs.