The National Co-operative Steamship Company.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 516, 9 October 1890, Page 3

The National Co-operative Steamship Company.

[TO THE EDITOR. I Sis,- Seeing the tarn Strike affairs are taking, the following may be of some use to your readers, and the public generally. Some time ago the members of the Officers’ Association, at Dunedin (now out on strike), formad the idea cf starting a Co operative Steamship Company. The idea has been warmly taken up throughout New Zealand, and offers to take shares are flawing in from all quarters. The propositions are as follows :—The capital to be raised is one million pounds, in £1 shares. No member allowed tp take more than five hundred shares. T.vW*hundred and fifty thousand to be raised at once, the rest at future dates. Speaking lately at O.imaru, Mr J. A. Millar said : ‘‘ln about eight weeks' time they would have four intercolonial, and four coasting steamers in New Zealand waters, and others to follow.” I would hke to point out to the thinking public, the beneficial results which are likely to ba the outcome of the above movement. For the last fifteen years the people of New Zealand have had to pay the highest scale for transit of goods, passage money, &c., per steamers, in fact higher than anyother country on the face of the globe, till the Ellis line started ; and would again. »e soon as the “ Jubilee ” was run off. Up till lately the steerage fare between Gisborne and Dunedin has been five pounds. In Australia, corresponding fares are as follows : Sydney to Melbourne, one pound ; Melbourne to Adelaide, one pound ten shillings; Sydney to Brisbane, one pound ten shillings. The distance is something like that referred to in New Zealand, only with no intermediate ports; that's thedifference between monopoly and opposition. It must be remembered that all Australian steamers have been paying Union wages for years, up till the strike, and are now, 1 believe. Some four and a half years ago I left New Zealand (like many other unfortunates) for the Kimberley rush ; not being satisfied with the prospects there, I reverted iny attention to North Queensland, and arrived at Cooktown, where there were two steamers arriving weekly from Sydney. I was rather astonished to find the enormous price of all kinds of produce, it being such a short disfagee from New Zealand- I next visited Port Dongles, Cairns, and Townsville, and during my stay there, which lasted about eleven months, the following would be a fair sample of retail prices : Oats from 8s to 9s per bushel, maize 7s, potatoes from 12s to £1 per sack, butter 2s Gd to 3s per lb, cheese Is 3d, corned beef 81, smoked fish Bd, bacon and ham Is 3d to Is 9d, eggs nev- r less than 2s Gd per dozen; on most of these things there was a slight Import duty, but nothing to speak of. When I used to tell some of the people there that the New Zealand farmers sometimes had trouble to get 5d per lb for their butter, they wanted to know if I was in the habit of pitching snake yarns. I never found out tbe real cause of the vast difference in prices between there and here till on my way to Sydney; the chief officer of the steamer I came down in informed me, first, that an agreement was made with the Union Company and the other Australian steamship owners, the former not to run up the Queensland Coast, nor carry passengers between Australian ports, the latter not to interfere with the Union Company’s New Zealand trade. I made many enquiries, and always was told that the above were facts. On special occasions the Union Company were allowed tn go as far as Brisbane, and once as fur as Rockhampton. You, will see by the above steamboat ring that all produce going from here to North Australian ports, fias to be transhipped and stored, &c., qt Sydney, whiqh causes the New Zealand producer to get little or nothing for his produce, and makes the Queenslander pay a very high price for an inferior article. It is to be hoped the promoters of the National Steamship Company will see their way clear to run to any port where a good price may be had, and a good article delivered, instead of having to drag it through thq Sydney vortex, where it loses in value and quality. Every man or woman, having the welfare of New Zealand at heart, will do well by taking shares in the proposed company, ae it is bound to help the producers, who are the mainstay of our land. I hope, in a short time, to be able to give yqu the present market prices uf produce in the different ports of North Queensland.—l am, io,, John Stewabt.