APPLE SHIPPING SPACE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7336, 14 January 1911, Page 2

APPLE SHIPPING SPACE

IMPORTANT POINT RAISED BY VICTORIANS. This arrangements for shipping apples from Australia are in a very unsatisfactory state. , Private firms have, contracted for the whole of the available shipping space, so that if a grower requires accommodation on tho vessels he must do his business through one oi the agents 'controlling the space. Complaint is also being .made by Commonwealth growers that the shipping freight is absurdly high. The oversea carriage costs 2s 6d to 2s lOd per 401 b case, whereas butter costs 2s to 2s 6d per box of 561 b. A case of fruit is worth' from 7s 6d to 10s, 'whereas a bos of butter is worth £2 16s. Thus not only is the charge per pound higher in the case of fruit" but "in comparison with the value of the commodity the fruitgrower pays the equivalent of eight or ten times as much for his freight as the dairyfarmer does. It might be added that the cost of cooling a fruit chamber is not so 'great as cooling a butter hold. The freight charged on fruit from Yew Zealand to London is 3s a case plus 10 per cent, primaee, while the butter freight is about the same as that from Australia. Oi course the butter people naid a very much higher freight in the earlv days" of their export ti-ade, and no doubt when the fruit trade becomes o permanent thing of considerable volume the present freight be reduced. The experience of Tasmania is not, however, very reassuring, as 'their apple trade is now a big established

business, and still they are paying a high freight in comparison with that charged for other perishable commodities. However, before asking for reduced freights New Zealand fruitirroivers should aim at improved methods of carrying the fruit.