PREFERENTIAL FREIGHTS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11748, 24 November 1903, Page 10

PREFERENTIAL FREIGHTS.

A SHIPPING ANOMALY. (SPECIAL TO "THB WW.") AUCKLAND, November 25. In reference to the action of the legislative Council to-day in drawing the attention of the Government to the unfair manner in which British goods are handicapped by tbe preferential rates charged by British shipping companies, a.discussion ap a recent meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce is of interest.

Mr G. Elliott, in a letter to the Chamber, after referring to the interest now being taken in fiscal reform, pointed out that of equal- importance to the question of preferential tariff was the fact that the freights charged by British aliipping companies upon certain classes of goods from Germany via London waa much less than on British manufactured goods from London direct. Mr Elliott instanced the fact that'Britiah ships carried German-made bottles from London at 22s 6d per ton. and for similar articles made in Britain the freight was 47s per ton. The freight from Hamburg to London was 5_ per ton, and transhipment charges 2s 6d per ton, Therefore the British shipping companies only received 15s per ton for the Continental bottles brought to New Zealand.

The Chairman (Mr B. Kent) said it really meant 27s per ton against the British-made bottles iv tbe freight from Loudon to New Zealand. It was all very well to talk about fostering tlie trade" of the Empire when it was being killed in Great Britain by the .action of their own shipping companies.

Mr A. H. Nathan said he could confirm the statements in the letter, for tlie same thing applied to pianos. If they bought English manufactured pianos they paid the higher freights from London, but if they bought German-made pianos they paid- the lower freight upon them from London. Tlie reason for this was tiiat when tlie Ger-man-line of steamers started in the Australian trade, the New Zealand Shipping Company, fearing it might lose the trade with Australia, brought down the freight on goods from Germany.

Mr T. Finlayson said they were doing some good to New Zealand in landing goods at a less cost. The shipping company was doing its beet to protect ite own bu-ine#t»j and at tlie same time it gave employment to British seamen and also landed goods here for British people at a lower cost. Mr Graves Aicken: "It is injuring British trade all the same." Mr Finlayson said, on the other band, it would do barm to British shipping if they let the whole of the German trade go in German bottoms by keeping up freights.. They would find the same thing in the inland railway freights in England. Mr Caldwell Bold a copy of the letter should "be sent to the London Chamber of Commerce, and abo to the Premier.

Mr S. Vaile said he had long ago drawn attention to the fact that it was useless to bave Customs tariffs ao long as freight tariffs were allowed to override Customs rates. The same thing was going on every day on the English railways, which also carried foreign made goods at- half the price charged for English manufactured articles. It was done by means of a complicated tariff, which"nobody could understand. The difficulty was to see how they could deal with this matter. He was very.pleased to see the Council* attention drawn to such an important .question! . In Now Zealand they were supposed to have the isame freights on the railways from the Bluff to the North Cape, but it was not so. Produce from Canterbury and Otago had a preferential tariff of o_ lid per ton on the railway* against Auckland's ls B_d per tori. He contended that by that means alone they paid ,£30,000 for the benefit of Canterbury and Otago. t ' ... ' 'Mr Caldwell pohYted out that if taerclianta in these places sent goods up to Auckland they hod to pay the same freight* oh the railways, and Auckland merchants got some advantage when they shipped goods down there. ' It was resolved to fofword copies of the leteer to the Premier, and also to tbe London and several other Chambers of Commerce in Great Britain.