FROZEN MEAT FREIGHTS.

Evening Star, Issue 10399, 21 August 1897, Page 2

FROZEN MEAT FREIGHTS.

WOODVILLE, August 21. Mr W. C. Buchanan, addressing a representative meeting of the Woodville Farmers’ Club on the freight question, proceeded to show that the feature of the age was cheap transit commodities, and that New Zealand must secure this or succumb in the race of competition. The London buyer had money, and we could not force him to increase his price, but the cheaper freights which we could secure were equivalent to an increase in price. He compared the freights paid from Australia to those paid by New Zealand, showing that the latter were at a disadvantage. The Freight Reduction Committee had 700 guarantors, two-thirds of whom owned under fifty bales each. Only one-fifth of the number owned over iOO bales. There were in the colony 17,000 individual sheep owners, who, with families, represented 85,000 souls, every one of whom would be directly benefited. The reduction secured on wool alone represented over £IOO,OOO, and he hoped settlers would appoint a permanent committee to watch their interests.