Customs Department

Grahamslaw In Action

Red Tape Untangled

From Our Rabaul Correspondent RECENTLY businessmen in Rabaul, NG, protested vigorously through the local press against red tape at the Customs Depart iment which, they said, was ■strangling the commercial life of

(the town.

\ Understaffed with, in the main, ■inexperienced employees who allowed *no elasticity in interpreting the ■regulations, both exports and im [ ports were held up. Four vessels were ■expected from overseas within ten (days, while the Customs shed was ■packed with cargoes more than two w weeks old.

Among the complaints was one of discourtesy to the public by one of the Department’s officers.

Within six days of publication of the reports on his Department, Mr.

T. Grahamslaw, Collector of Customs, was in Rabaul, having arranged appointments, prior to his arrival, with the businessmen quoted in the newspaper articles. During his II days’ stay, Mr.

Grahamslaw interviewed both Euro pean and Chinese businessmen, listened to their problems, and, where possible, promised to ease re strictive routines.

On the night before his departure he addressed the Rabaul Customs staff, briefed them with an outline of their obligations to the public and investigated the complaint of discourtesy.

On this last point no news has filtered beyond the Department.

However, since Mr. Grahamslaw’s departure the transformation in the Rabaul Customs office has been amazing. No problem is too much trouble for the clerical staff to help solve; gone are the days of petty pin-pricking regulations that wasted manhours and energy.

The staff say that there is “no change at all,” and that the news paper had nothing to do with it if there is. Mr. Grahamslaw’s visit was a “routine annual visit.”

However, as this is Mr. Graham law’s first visit to Rabaul as Chief Collector, and as the last visit of his predecessor was in 1952, the chronological error is, to quote the late Damon Runyon, “more than somewhat.”

J The Rev. R. P. Garrity, of the Melanesian Mission, Honiara, BSIP. has been appointed in London as Deputationist Secretary to the Mission. Mr. Garrity expects to leave Honiara in October to visit NZ, after which, with Mr. Garrity and their son Robert, he will go to London to take up his new appoint ment early in 1956.

t A US Navy PBMSA Martin patrol bomber with a crew of nine and ten passengers called at Tarawa on June 4, departing the following day for the Marshall Is. No reason for the visit was made public. t A group of Franciscan Capuchin friars was expected in New Guinea in July or August to open the first New Guinea mission station for that

Order in the Mendi-Tari area. The friars were coming from the Pennsylvania, USA, province of the Order. !f Mrs. Doris Booth, of Bulolo, New Guinea, said during a business visit to Brisbane in July that New Guinea goldmining was gradually declining, mainly because of high production costs.