NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING COMPANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14226, 24 November 1909, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING COMPANY.

QUESTION OP FREIGHTS. r [BY telegraph.—press association.] Chbistchttbch, Tuesday. At the annual meeting of the Dominion shareholders of the New Zealand Shipping Company to-day the chairman (Mr. H. ,P. Murray-A ynsley) referred to the details of the balance-sheet, and stated that .the reduction on tho profits of. the company was partly duo to a falling off in the quantity of cargo carried from London to the Dominion, and partly to the low rate of freight at which a' largo portion of tho wool clip was carried Home last year, and the long detention of some of the company's steamers in the Dominion waiting for cargo. In this connection he mentioned that tho Opawa was laid -up in New Zealand for 229 days, tho Kaikoura for 230 days, the Kaipara for 119 days, the Papanui for 86 days, and the Waimat-e for 73 days. This meant heavy wages bills. It was , however, satisfactory to shareholders that, despite these drawbacks, the dividend had been maintained at 10s per share for the year.

Sir George Clifford, in seconding the motion, dealt at considerable length with the movement afoot, chiefly in the North Island, for a reduction of the freights on wool, and said that, in his opinion, tho movement had been the result of a misconception, and was hardly justified by the facts, which had not been clearly appreciated by the gentlemen who had taken part in it. The company would do its best from patriotic motives to carry the produce of. the Dominion at the lowest rate consistent with an efficient service. There was no reason why a " set " should be made against the company. Supposing they were forced by competition to carry wool' at a rate which did not pav, it would . materially injure the company's ability to continue that regular service which was so necessary for the removal of produce as soon as it was ready. The service had been conducted in such a way as to benefit wool-growers to a greater extent than any reduction in rates could have done. If the life of one of the company's large steamers was reckoned at 10 years they had to put aside a very largo depreciation fund, in order to meet, not the decay of vessels, but the spirit of improvement which had to be continually met. This year they were adding two large steamers to their fleet, and he did not suppose that that rate of addition would be very much diminished in future. They could undert stand that the management of the company had to look forward, and that if its profits were to go down to a lower rate than they now stood at it would be very difficult to maintain a service which would commend itself so much to the producers of the Dominion: as it had done in the past. The report and balance-sheet were adopted, and Messrs. John Anderson, J. R. Blair, and F. H. Tyne were re-elected directors. '