TRADE WITH SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13225, 10 July 1906, Page 6

TRADE WITH SOUTH AFRICA.

PROPOSED NEW .SERVICE.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— OWK CUKKK-SraXDENT.}

; WKxixgtos, Monday. Thk Post to-night states: There is a pros--pect of a service being again established,' or at nil events we liar* grounds tor believing that the Government will shortly call for lenders for a steam service from New Zealand, to South Africa, viaFremantle, with permission to call at any other port in Australia, for a period of two years, the service to be a six-weekly one, and • steamers to be not less than 3500 tons register, with a speed of not less than 10 knots. The steamers, it is assumed, will be asked to load at any four selected ports in New Zealand, and to discharge "; at, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Table Bay., Freights, it is understood, will be .stipulated as follows:— Oats, wheat, barley, /four, 27s 6d per ton ; potatoes in sacks, 32s 6d per ton; bran, 30s per ton; potatoes, in boxes, 30s per tori; nay (pressed bales) 32« 6d per ton - sheep, 10s each; horses and cattle, £10 each. On the same basis frozen meal, poultry, and dairy produce would have to be shipped at current summer rates frojn New Zealand to London, and other goods' at rates current from New Zealand to Loudon, at the time of shipment. In reference to the Australian port of call, freights from New Zealand to Fremantle would not' be allowed to exceed those current from .Sydney and Melbourne to Fremantle. In ease there was not sufficient cargo offering in' New Zealand for a steamer's capacity, no doubt alternative tenders could be arranged, giving a shipping company the right to call at two "Australian port?, after loading iii New Zealand, with the additional proviso that freights from New Zealand should not be' higher ' than those -ruling; from Australian ports. Such a service would, of course, he one in which a Government subsidy would be required, the amount being a matter for the tenderer to first broach. The rates quoted above are a slight reduction per ton on those contained in the specifications issued with the contract formulated by the, Government in 1902. Whether this would mean a bigger subsidy than that paid in the '-'past, in the event if a service being re-established between New- Zealand and South Africa, is a matter for conjecture.