THE FREIGHTS QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 21, 24 July 1897, Page 2

THE FREIGHTS QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR.

Sie — May I trespass on your space once ! more in reply to the last effort of my shipping friends? 1 and 2. They say, " He {jives a summary of figures which may be satisfactory to himself, but which, we venture to say, neither he nor we can understand." I assert that they are perfectly simple, and mean that thdtoreight reductions on frozen meat

agreed to up to date by the shipping companies represent a saving to the producers of the country of £116,609 on the four years' contract as compared with the' term's "offered by them in March. I have furnished every particular upon which the above, sum is based, and I challenge contradiction of any one of them. v They also assert 1 that the reduotion of wool freights by sailer advertised -in February was a new concession not granted in any previous , season. To that I reply by asking them the quantity of wool carried by sailing ship at the "reduced rate, exclusive of Otago and Southland. Producers have little cause to thank them for a reduction which was only announced after nearly all the sailing ships were practically off the berth. 3. I am obliged to my shipping friends for their quotations of Melbourne .freights on greasy wool by steamer last season, and in return I am happy to fqrnish them with Sydney freights by sailer, which, unlike theirs, is not a mere unverified quotation, possibly subject to all sorts of plunder fund deductions and allowances to favoured j clients, but a statement of rates actually f paid by the Graziers' Meat Company there, ';andvouohed for by the signature -of their I' manager : — •

*No sailer .on befto/jny Wellington, therefore higher steamer rates have to be paid. The manager* of- ths Graziers' j^eat Company writes as folldws :«-r^-Y<)u'd[id;',;not ask for the rate on frozen meat, but at tJie present moment I can secure- -tonnage 1 at a , halfpenny, and some shippers have not .paid more right through. We paid on one shipmenu in May 9-16 d," on another 9-16 d less 5 per cent., and we have 'shipped at a halfpenny less" 5 per cent." ' • ' 4. I have nothing further to say on this head,, except to repeat that I never quoted > Id and 10 per cent, primage "as the sunimer rate of mutton freight without at the same time mentioning that there were refunds and allowances. 1 ' "■■ j * -'' ■-- ' " j 5. They say that h "as regards talloTf ' freights Mr. Buchanan, is 'again iuacoaVate, and has mixed up oleo; •with-tallow'c-i'and if he will refer to the Wellington Meat Export Company he will find that they never were asked 55s for tallow, either thisjeqr ox )ast season." Will my shtp.piug. friends injform me whether "oleo" is anything else"than what it is frequently called— natnel- v tallow ? lam sorry that they are' . > such subterfuges, but I really mv 1;J/ ~ verdict of the producers of New, Zt the shipping ring methods of •," their trade " shown by, the ' abi How can they, I ask, face' the 1 petition in London of their rival* i jiu iul parts of the world handicapped as I- ( haire shown them to be ? , •-•'<,■< I am, &c, W.G. Buchanan.

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