SHIPPING FREIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 29, 3 August 1926, Page 9

SHIPPING FREIGHTS

REDUCTIONS ANNOUNCED NEW AGREEMENT MADE. The Prime Minister announced this afternoon in the House of Representatives that the Meat and Dairy Boards had signed an agreement with the shipping companies providing for the termination of the existing S;contracts on 31st August, 1927, and that the rates aro subject to a reduction of 7J per cent, as from to-day. If a ship haa already commenced loading, the reduction will commence at the next port of loading. The two boards had accepted a new contract for three years from Ist September, 1927, to 3.lst August, J930 —the first two years at a reduction of 1\ per cent, and the third year at a reduction of 121 per cent., all based on the terminating rates of the present contracts. The Fruit Control Board, had also secured a contract for four years at a reduetibn, of 12£ per cent, on present' rates. The new rate is 3s 6d per bushel ease, and represents a saving to the fruitgrowers, based on last year's shipments, of £18,224 per season, or a total reduction for the four years of '& 72,896. The new agreement as regards frozen meat represents a further saving to the meat producers of. £617,500 for the fonr years. The new freight rates when compared with the rates in existence in 1922 represent a saving of £1,117,000 per season on frozen meat, tallow, and pelts. The new agreement for dairy produce, estimated on the .shipments for the past season, which were small, represented a reduction of £77,270 for each of three years, and a reduction of £128,784 for the fourth year—a total reduction of £360,594 for the four years covered by the period of the agreement.