WOOL BY SAILER

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 22 July 1921, Page 3

WOOL BY SAILER

A REMINDER OF THE PAST

Shipment of wool by sailing ship was, of course, the only way many years ago. The trade gradually gave way to the steamers, but it took a long time in dying. Some years before the war jit practically came to an end, bqpaiise of; the higher insurance rates on cargoes by sailer as compared with those on wool by steamers. It has, however, been revived, and the reason is not to be found in modification of the insurance rates in favour of shipment in sailing vessels, but in the' present depressed state of the wool market. The steamer's average passage is about 42 days, that of the sailing ship about 90, and the wool owner, buyer, or grower who is shipping by sailer cannot tell what wool will be worth three or four months hence whereas he knows what it is worth to-day, and probably be worth in six weeks' time. If the market improves by the time the sailing vessel arrives Home with the wool, then the shipper will have done well; if- it is about the same'as it is now, then some 12 or 14 weeks' storage will • have been saved by shipping the wool in a sailer. The->largest sailing ship in the world is La France; she is owned by Frenchmen, and her tonnage is 7000 tons. She is to come from Lyttelton to Wellington for Wright, Stephenson, to load wool when she completes discharge of a cargo of coal for the Government. The fourmasted barque Eewa, ex Alice At Leigh, believed to be the largest British-owned-sailing ship, is at' present in port, being loaded by Scales, Pacific, Ltd., the Vercingetorix, another .French ship, is being loaded by the West Coast Freight Reduction Committee ' (ZoV rab and Co:). ,and -the Pampa was loaded' by Scales, Pacific. These four . sailing ships will, account for carrying from New Zealand from 40,000 to 45,000 bales of wool. They are taking if at Id.per pound as compared with the steamer rate of l|d per pound; but, the rate for shipments by the France will be |d, plus 10 per ' cent, trimmage, less 5 per cent. She will take tallow at £3 10s per ton, as against £8 2s 6d, the current steamer rate. It is, of course, very much cheaper to run a sailing ship than a steamer, but the speed of tho latter usually compensates for | tho higher freight rates. In the present state of the market it so happens that (it is in a way more convenient, and may prove less costly, giving a higher return to the owner of the wool to ship by sailing vessel, regardless of the length of passage. The wool going the New Zealand auctious, as well as that shipped Home, on growers' account.