A WELLINGTON MERCHANT'S VIEWS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11098, 17 October 1901, Page 5

A WELLINGTON MERCHANT'S VIEWS.

(fBOM A CO-RESPONDENT.) WELLINGTON, October 16. On being interviewed, Mr D. J. Nathan, a prominent merchant here, expressed his indignation At the idea that we were dependent on America for a mail service or any other service. Hβ says, if that is the case, we had better haul down the Union Jack, and become a> dependency of America straight away. He sees no necessity /or expediting the mail service, and points Out that all urgent business is transacted by cabl«. Lite many other people, Mr Nathan want* Mr Spreckels to explain, before we enter into another arrangement with him, how it' is that he gives preference to some communities and individuals over others, and why Wellington, Cbrifctchurch., and Dutredjn merchants, are charged, perhaps, 60 and 60 per cent, more .for We carriage of goods than, those in Sydney, and, perhaps, 30 and 40 per oent. more than those in Auckland. Mr Nathan scouts the idea that for the sake of getting our mails a day or two tfttioker we should give foreign bottoms the preference over "those of the Old Country. Oar patriotism is not worth much, he thinks, if we are not prepared to substantially subsidise'a fast line of our own, and not only a fast line, but a class of steamers suitable for conversion into armoured cruisers, so that they might protect shipping in time of trouble. It hurts Mr Nathan's feelings to see the way foreigners are eating into our shipping trad* in all parts of the world, and hd alludes with sorrow.to the manner in which German and French liners are being allowed to cat into the Australian passenger trade of the P. and O. line. Mr Natfian says the British developed the Samoa and Honolulu trade, , at great expense, and then actually subsidised a foreigner to trade with those places, until the_y were taken out of on* hands. He is not impressed with the statement we bear from time tf< time that British and American interests are not conflicting, but coincident, and be would call upon Parliament to evince its patriotism; and set an example to other Parliament* of the Empire, even if a sacrifice is entailed at the outset by voting for red, all red, and nothing but red. Every penny spent in subsidising Mr Spreckels is, in Mr Nathan's opinion, money expended on bolstering up a foreign trade opposed to British interests* Apropos of the Used issue; the Wellington merchant points out that while New. Zealand is taking nearly the whole t»f Fiji's sugar can*, and paying growers in that locnl* ity large sums annually, the latter are sending for nearly the whole of their supplies to Sydney, and spending the money obtained from New Zealand in the New South Wales capital. He wonders that Parliament cannot devise means of checkmating these anomalotw proceedings. A prominent sawmiller here says, that in putting a heavy duty on the supply of kauri timber obtained from New Zealand, th* Commonwealth-is simply penalising the users of that timber in Australia, where no substitute for that particular kind of wood can 1m obtained.