about imports and cvs update

I don't do many imports... maybe 5-5 in the last 10 yrs..
And never did one that was not the start of a new repository.

Is it a misuse of import to use it to start a new directory hierarchy
beneath some exiting hierarchy in CVSROOT?

I mean like this:

Existing CVSROOT
CVSROOT/base/
           subdir/
           subdir/
           subdir/

CVSROOT after the import:
CVSROOT/base/
           subdir/
           NEW_IMPORT/ (also subdir of base)
           subdir/
           subdir/

If that is NOT a misuse:
Can someone tell me if this behavior is normal.

I have a checked out module.  Its the whole of CVSROOT/base.
(not much on my home single user machine)

module name is `base'
So I have `base' checked out at ~/base

On a remote machine (on home lan) I've imported a directory hierarchy
like so:

cvs import -m "some blab" base/NEW_IMPORT blah start

Now, back on the local host which is also the cvs server for the home
lan, I go to the checked out module, which hasn't been used since I
did the import.

I run `cvs -n update -dP'.. just checking.

It shows no output.

Shouldn't cvs be telling me about the newly imported directory
hierarchy under `base', and be listing files needing to be updated?