AGY-1182 | The Collector of Customs [II]

Full description

As part of a general move to place all colonial customs services under the direct control of the Commissioners of Customs in London Michael Cullin Cotton and Burman Langa were appointed by the British Treasury to be Collector, and Comptroller of Customs in July 1828. These men took up duty from 2 February 1829. The new administrative structure transplanted to New South Wales included

* Collector of Customs
* First Clerk to the Collector, to act as Warehouse-keeper
* Locker to assist the Warehouse-keeper
* Comptroller, to act as Landing Surveyor
* Clerk to the Comptroller
* Two Landing Waiters, Searchers and Gaugers
* Four Tide-Waiters

British Treasury nominees and local recruits filled these positions. These officers were not only responsible for the collection of local revenues and the regulation of local trades but were also charged with the important duty of enforcing the laws relating to navigation and trade throughout the British Empire. (1) The office of Comptroller of Customs was abolished in 1839 when a Landing Surveyor for Sydney was appointed. (2) In 1852 the control of all revenues of the Colony of New South Wales was transferred to the local Legislature, however, the Customs continued to be a kind of semi-Imperial institution. (3) The Tide Surveyors carried out a general supervision of everything connected with Customs afloat, measured vessels under the Merchant Ships Acts, and even carried out provisions of the Chinese Immigration Act of 1861. (4)

With responsible government and the growth in trade an intricate administrative system flourished with the tide waiter boarding a vessel on arrival to take charge of all dutiable goods, while warrants were drawn up for the landing waiter, clearing clerk, and landing surveyor. Customs Agents and Shipping Companies acted on behalf of the importing merchants and cleared goods at either bonded warehouses or Customs House in Sydney.

There was a network of customs stations responsible to Customs House that included -

* Tide Surveyor's Office, Sydney
* Out-port Branch, Botany Bay
* Inland Bonded Warehouse Branch, Bourke
* Out-port Branches along the New South Wales Coast
* Border Branch, Murray River
* Out-port Branch, Newcastle

The Commonwealth of Australia Act, 1901 transferred of the Customs Department to the Federal jurisdiction. The collections of customs and excise by the New South Wales Government ceased on 31 December 1900.


FOOTNOTES
(1) McMartin, Arthur Public Servants and Patronage: The Foundation and Rise of the New South Wales Public Service, 1786-1859 Sydney University Press, Sydney 1983 p.190.
(2) Testimony of W.A. Duncan, Collector of Customs from the Minutes of Evidence (No.18) for the Commission to enquire into the conditions of the Customs Department 1867 in the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly 1867-68 Vol. 2 p.317.