SHIP ING INDUSTRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 May 1914, Page 5

SHIP ING INDUSTRY.

A COLLAPSE IN FREIGHT RATES. A RATE WAR PROBABLE. BY TELEGRAPH—PKKSS ASSOCIATION. LONDON, May 29. Lord Joicey, presiding at the "Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, said there had been a complete collapse in the freight market. Shipowners seemed to have got down to bedrock, but the low freights made for cheaper food and, larger consumption. These things had an extraordinary way of righting themselves. The Norddeutscher-Lloyd and the Deutsche-Australische had intimated that they contemplated maintaining their own direct cargo service from Bremen and Hamburg to New Zealand. A leading British owner is visiting Germany with the idea of arranging a basis of settlement. Prospects of an amicable arrangement are bright. If they fail, a rate war will follow.