Wool Cargo Loss Assessed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31291, 10 February 1967, Page 1

Wool Cargo Loss Assessed

The decline in New Zealand wool cargoes would not automatically mean an increase in freight rates charged by British shippers, said the deputy chairman and general manager in London of the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, Ltd. (Mr W. R. Russell) in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Russell is here to refresh his knowledge of New Zealand conditions and ports. The size of wool cargoes from New Zealand was only one of many factors affecting the problems discussed in negotiations on freight rates, he said. There were always ups and downs in trade but

the impact of loss of freight must be considered. Mr Russell said that for the shipping companies the absence of cargoes for which vessels had been scheduled, must cause considerable vacant space. It was possible to a limited degree to reallocate tonnage. Four ships had had their loadings changed for the near future. But the types of load-

ing they would get elsewhere would be less economic and the shipping companies would suffer.

The suggestion that considerable overseas funds could be made by New Zealand running its own national shipping line was an illusion, said Mr Russell.

The provision of capital for ships required considerable overseas funds and the ships would also require servicing. Mr Russell said the expenditure of overseas shipping companies around the New Zealand coast represented a considerable part of freight earned. There would be no savings on this score.

New Zealand had so many other calls on its capital that it would gain little by having its own shipping line. Mr Russell will spend two months in Australia after his New Zealand tour.