CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9370, 21 May 1889, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

UNION STEAMSHIP CO. TO THE KDITOR. Sir,—Your paper being at all times open to ventilate grievance?, we beg to ask you to publish the undermentioned remarks :— For the last twelve months there has been an enormous export from this port to Sydney, and we ourselves have shipped large quantities. On April 10th we wrote to the agent of the Union Steamship Co. : " Our Mr. Hesketh, when on a visit to Sydney, brought back a large pile of bills of lading sent from Christchurch and Wellington to Sydney, and finds that we in Auckland have been charged in many cases absolutely double, and in one case three times the rate from those down South. We cannot think that your company will seek to place one shipping port against another in this fashion, and confidently place our claim enclosed before you in hope of a speedy settlement." The above are facts, and we have the documents to show to anyone enquiring, and we may say that on our asking at the Union Company's office on one occasion why we are charged 30s per ton on onions, and only 10s from Cliristchurch, the clerk had the impudence to say, "Oh we thought we might as well make a bit as well as you." Now, sir, the Union Co. is a first-class company no doubt, and will very likely spend all that they have screwed out of Auckland to kill the present opposition, which they might have averted by acting fairly ; but the time will come when they will and must have a really powerful opposition, and then all these things will be remembered against them. It absolutely pays us exporters far better to purchase produce in Canterbury and Dunedin and ship thence to Sydney than to purchase from our own farmers. Thus an injury is done to our port, to our merchants, and, more severely than all, to our poor struggling farmers, who want all the help we can give them. In conclusion, we may say that the Union Co. have absolutely refused to meet us in any way, and when one comes to think that we, one of the smallest of our exporters, have been overcharged at least £400 or £500, what will the sum total of our port's loss be ?— We are, &c, Hesketh and Aitkkn'. May 20, 18S9.