SMALL WOOL CHEQUES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 294, 7 September 1932, Page 11

SMALL WOOL CHEQUES

Heavy Charge for Freight FARMERS’ COMPLAINT The extent to which shipping and allied charges can diminish the value of a wool cheque is illustrated by documents produced by a Waikato farmer, who was concerned mainly to show that, while importers are complaining about freight rates, the man on the land also lias a grievance. “And"the farmer cannot pass the charges on,” he added. After the deduction of brokerage and sale expenses 28 bales of wool sent by the farmer for sale in London produced a cheque for £192/7/5. But the farmer received only £122/0/6, plus exchange amounting to £l2/0/11, a total of £134/1/5. The b.alance of £7O/0/11 was absorbed in the following manner : Freight, £5O/14/-; interest 'on freight, 5/8: warehouse entry, 4/6; fire and strike insurauce, 2/-; proportion of cablegrath, 5/-; Loudon dock charges, £l4/9/10; port rate, 7/1; commission at 2 per cent., £3/17/10. Apart from these charges the farmer paid £B/8/- to rail his wool from the Waikato to Auckland, and shipping and other charges at Auckland absorbed £B/3/8. Thus the farmer netted £ll7/9/9 for his 28 bales. Reckoning a bale at 4001 b, the farmer found that 11,2001 b of wool had brought him 28,207 pence, or about 2}d a lb. From that return, of course, has to be deducted the cost of production, and it is commonly reckoned that a return of a shilling a lb Is necessary to recoup the farmer for his expenditure in producing and marketing the wool.