THE FREIGHTS QUESTION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 6

THE FREIGHTS QUESTION.

As the question of freights is at the pre"ent time occupying a good deal of attention the following article from the Neto Zealand times, of Augast 19th, will no doubt be read with interest: —Those who are responsible lor having initiated the movement which ended in the formation of a Freights Reduction Committee, a movement that now oeems likely to culminate in something very much akin to disaster to all but a few big shcepfarmers, appear to be determined to persevere in the work, notwithstanding the faot that all the evidences are against them. Not to put too fine a point upon it, any farmer—-especially he of the small class —who gives his support towards the project of the Freights Reduction Committee is an enemy to the majority of the producers of this colony, but more especially the dairy farmer. Enquiries set on foot by the leading men of the Dairy Unions throughout New Zealand have elicited the fact that if success attends the "freight reducers " there is a danger that the regular service instituted by the Shipping Companies by means of thoir direct steamers will be imperilled. Any man with half an eye to the circumstances can therefore see that to do anything which will cause a block in the shipments of dairy produce, aud other lines on which the small farmer depends, must mean heavy loss to individuals and the prejudicing of the trades concerned on the Home markets. Even with the excellent services provided by tbe Shipping Companies at present trading along our coasts, complaint is sometimes heard from London as to irregularity of shipments. How, then, will it fare with the producer if these same Shipping Companies withdraw their steamers and seek charters in Australia? We are compelled to emphasise the fact that the ordinary producer or small farmer is face to face with a position which threatens to bring ruin upon him and his. And to what end ? That a few large run* j holders may pocket, at the outside, an j extra couple of hundred pounds per annum on the -whole cf their large wool clips. No more selfish or unworthy object ever actuated any set of men in this colony. We have said that the largest of the sheepfarmers will save a couple of hundreds of pounds per annum. Perhaps, for, as we have previously pointed out, the expenses in connection with the founding of the Reduction Committee, the public speaking, the secretarial work and the canvassing will not be done for nothing. Who, then, is to pay, and what will be the proportion of the cost to shippers ; aud who will guarantee that as the bulk of the wool may go Home in sailers—classed Al at Lloyd's, of course— tbe prices realised will be the same as that which will be obtained for the wool which may be timed to reach the London sales in the direct liners ? And, again, what of the insurance charges and their effect upon the amount realised and to be banded to the producer as a result of these mighty reductions in wool freights ? There is a feature in the case to which it would have been better had we never had to refer. That is, the unfair manner in which the shipping companies have been dealt with all the way through. It is not for us to say that this was done designedly. The fact is there all the same. Instead, however, of the " freight reducers" taking into consideration an the features of the case, they proceeded to the work of bringing about a reduction in the freight charges on wool, regardless of anything or anybody. Those who were concerned in the movement, let it be remembered, first of all approached the shipping companies and got reductions on frozen meat, tallow and other lines—the

companies going as far in that direction as it was possible for them to do without bring- / ing absolute loss upon their shareholders. These shareholders up to the present have M M enroll return for the mm they t *_h_, Xa d^ ioa ' --»«-«-. shipping at not by their words, declared -—" You are bound to carry our meat and tallow at certain rates—rates that you say won't pay yon very well—and now we will take the wool away from you and send it Home by foreign shipping companies if need be, so that we may save a few more shillings." No matter that all the payments for freight go out of the colony; no matter that no indirect benefit will accrue to merchants, retailers, or others in the colony through the presence in our waters of a lot of foreign sailing ships—with supplies on board for the round trip, and it may be the presence of cheap foreign labour into the bargain. This Undesirable state of things, moreover, means the sacrifice of the small producer, and it may be the paralysing of the dairy industry throughout the colony. For all the Freights Reduotion Committee cares it really seems that tihat catastrophe may take place tomorrow. If a percentage of the wool kings be safe, what matter T

every mam who has had an advance up Mb wool, either from a Bank, loan Compai or any other institution, should consid most carefully. We have shown in form articles on this question that some w w-ere persuaded to sign an agreement wi the Freights Reduction Committee aro cc inderabry exercised now they find that th must not sell in the colony, but sond th« wool Homo in the Al at Lloyd's vessel The trouble does not end there, howevt for those who have so signed discover th at the time they did so they were not— law-free agents. That is to say, tl loaning institution may compel them ship thwr wool by the establishe lines, may-insist upon a sale in the colon and altogether refuse to allow a pound ' the wool to go by the ships chartered by tl Freights Reduction Committee. In whi position, then, is tbe email farmer, who between the devil of the loaning institntic and the deep sea of the Al at Lloyd's wo< ships? We must earnestly commend tlie. facts, and those we have previously fu -ashed, to the full and careful consideratic of every sheep farmer, small and great, wl: has not yet entered into a compact with tl Freights Reduction Committee. We are cor cerned, not so much for individuals or f< shipping companies as for the well-being < one of our/national industries, the dairy pri duce trade. To encourage any movemet calculated? to induce irregularity of shipmen is to prejudice the whole trade in theworld markets; to run the chance of a discor tinuanoe of the present admirable servic may lead to the ruin of perhaps thousand of our producers. Let every man intereste weigh well the consequences of his act! especially at the present juncture, so tha he may not be persuaded into entering upo an arrangement, the ultimate benefits c which, even to the l»r<-*»«i-. -nn>*r>lr)<»- D _-_ +,