JAPAN: KOBE. 
177 
the customs bonded warehouse; Kobe Pier Company’s tariff of stor 
age charges, from page 12 (to show the charges sanctioned by the 
Government to the private bonded warehouses). The first men 
tioned is the scale of charges to be levied by the customs for the 
keeping of the goods at the risk and expense of the owner or other 
persons concerned, when such goods sent to the customs for shipment 
or landed are not, within seventy-two hours after being sent or 
landed, either shipped, removed, dispatched, or placed in a bonded 
warehouse, and are therefore eventually stored by the customs. 
These charges are generally considered prohibitive. 
Information relative to receipts and expenditures on account of 
service is not obtainable. 
The classes of merchandise chiefly stored in bonded warehouses are 
sugar, flour, woolen and piece goods, etc. Those chiefly taken into 
the customs warehouse (not bonded) in transit, etc., are machinery, 
provisions, hardware, furniture, etc. 
Although the length of time goods remain in bond varies materially 
according to the state of the commercial market, during the year the 
average time goods remained in bonded warehouses is found to be 
about one month. Goods remaining either on the customs compound 
or in the customs warehouse varied from about two or three days to 
two weeks, and occasionally more than two weeks under some unfa 
vorable circumstances while transshipping, etc. 
So far Americans have made use of the bonded warehouses to a 
very limited extent, the China and Japan Trading Company (Lim 
ited) being the only firm which has, and its entries have been of small 
quantity and very rare. The greater portion of the merchandise, 
however, taken into the customs warehouse is found to be of Ameri 
can produce, and therefore it may be assumed that the Americans are 
making great use of this warehouse. All nationalities are treated 
exactly alike by the administrators of the warehouses. 
The removal of goods is done by lighters from the steamer to the 
shore, thence by carts or trucks to the warehouses, and vice versa. As 
all the warehouses are in close proximity to the shore, the distance to 
be covered by such drayage is very short. The cost of such removal 
may be divided into three parts, as follows: (a) Charges for landing 
or shipping; (5) . charges for cartage or truckage; (c) charges for 
handling at warehouses. For charges (a) see “ Rates of landing and 
shipping charges bv the Kobe Pier Company,” inclosed.® The charges 
(Ò) can only be fixed at the time of undertaking. The handling 
charges are about 1 to 5 cents per case or bale, or 1 cent per picul of 
133£ pounds, according to the nature of the goods. These charges 
apply to either storing or discharging the goods from the warehouses. 
For goods requiring special care or demanding extra cooly hire, an 
extra charge may be made. 
The care and supervision to be exercised by the customs authorities 
over the warehouses are provided in the law relating to the bonded 
warehouses (see below b ) and executive regulations under the law. 
Every movement on the part of the private bonded warehouses is 
« On file in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor. 
»Copy of the law also forwarded by Consul Harris at Nagasaki, 
18762-05 M 12