THE IMPENDING SHIPPING WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13147, 9 April 1906, Page 5

THE IMPENDING SHIPPING WAR.

PRESENT POSITION ACUTE. NEGOTIATIONS FOR A SETTLEMENT. [BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] UnniSTCHURCH, Sunday. The impending shipping war between the subsidised Federal line on the one hand a.nd the direct lines on the other has not yet opened. Negotiations are still in progress, but whether they will lend to a settlement of the trouble seems very uncertain, although it is hoped in some quarters that an open rupture may he avoided. Mr. J. Gibbs, the ma.nager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, one of the direct lines affected, and Mr. J. J. Kiusey. of Kinsev, Barns, and Co., the local agents for the Federal line, wore seen yesterday morning, but both these gentlemen were very reluctant to give any information at all as regards the present situation, and the probable consequences. They stated that while the negotiations were pending the parties interested were most anxious that nothing of what was transpiring should be nuv.le public. One of the gentlemen approached admitted, however, that the present position was most acute, and that something would have to go shortly. [BY telegraph. —OWN correspondent.] Ellington, Sunday. The New Zealand Times, in a third article on the shipping combine and 1 the west of England service, after referring to a contract made by one of the large freezing companies with two of the oversea, shipping companies for the carriage of frozen meat at a fixed rate for some years to come, points out that this contract compels the freezing company to ship its meat by certain specified lines, whether it likesSH- or not. Itthen goes on to point out the remedy, saying: "When the weapons of a shipping ring include our producers in their sweep we aire bound to fiiht, and should we assist the victim of the ling in protecting our producers we can afford to do so, and count it so much to our credit. There is nothing miraculous, nothing dreamy, about a. brief Act to make forward freight contracts illegal. Our Legislature has the power to pass such an Act, as other legislatures have done, and no extraordinary acutenees is required to perceive that such an Act should be retrospective if we are to avoid the injustice of keeping certain shipping companies within the bounds of fair competition, while permitting other companies to continue their exploitation of our producers." In connection with this matter 1 hear that some interesting developments may be looked for in the near future.