THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY SO, 1897.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10731, 20 February 1897, Page 4

THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY SO, 1897.

The annual meeting of the Southland Frozen Meat Company, held last Saturday at Invercargill, had features of general interest, as well as those -which

were very largely local. For the past year the business of the company has been carried on by a committee of

management appointed by the guarantors, under the scheme by which the

company was reconstructed in February of: last year. At that time the position of the company was extremely critical. It was found that additional

capital was imperatively, required if the^ company was to continue '* doing business, and the alternative to con-

tinuance was the certain creation of a monopoly which would have had^ the Southland sheep - growers in its power. The nature of this

monopoly may be surmised from the published reports of the trial in the

suit between this company and Nelson Bros. We may observe in passing that the directors have decided to carry their case to the Privy Council in consequence of the adverse decision of the

Court of Appeal. Early last year, finding the capital of the company insufficient, the directors sought th< assistance of the Southland farmers and not in vain. A new issue.oi preferential shares was made, and £S per share on the original shares was written off. The writing off representee £20,795, of which £20,578 was utilisec to wipe off the debit balance of profil and los 3 which had accumulated* anc to reduce the book cost of buildings and plant by £399. The new issue oi shares gave fresh capital of £13,478 The writing off reduced the capital ol the company from£loo,oooto £79,022, The effect of the transaction was that the accumulated debit balance .was wiped off, there was a capital of aboui £13,000 to go on with, while the guaranteed overdraft to the Bank oi Kew Zealand was £22,296. The committee were able to report at the annual meeting on Saturday that the year's business had resulted in a balance to credit of profit and loss of £344 13.? 3d, besides which the overdraft had been reduced by £1628 16s lOd, while an outlay of £500 for repaixs. to a water race damaged by floods had been met, also an outlay of £160 for a new main shaft at Mataura. It will thus be seen that if no very large profit was made, at least the continual loss was more than arrested, and the future of the company is more hopeful, more especially as the Committee of Management pursue a non-speculative policy. Unfortunately, the prospects of the company are like those of other companies of a similar kind—they are controlled by outside influences, —and sjieakers at the meeting seemed depressed because tlie new combination entered into in London of firms interested in the frozen meat trade excluded Kew Zealand; but as Mr M'CinEBN, -who is chairman 'of the Committee of Management, said, the weapon with which to meet this is to produce an article that will bring the highest price in the London market. "In that case," lie continued, " they need notregretnot joining the Australian

combination, as they intended to produce a better article and get a higher price."

However, we have dealt sufficiently with the local aspect of the company's affairs, which we now leave with the hope that they will be as prosperous as the company's best friends could desire. We shall deal shortly with the features of general interest to which we alluded in setting out. This was the inequality in railway freights indifferentparts of the colonyinequalities which operate injuriously j againsfc the Southland Company, and which so recently as January 19 the Minister for Kailways said he did not intend to remove. The chairman of ; directors (Mr C. Cowan) gave vent to his opinions on this subject with great bufc not uncalled for vigour, lie j referred particularly to the Joint ! Agricultural, Pastoral, and Stock Committee, which held a special inquiry , lasfc session into the whole question of I tlie colony's interest in the frozen meat j trade. The immediate cause of the | inquiry was a petition from the Canter- | bury Agricultural and Pastoral Associaj tion asking for a reduction of railway j charges on^ frozen meat. The ConiI mittee recommended, -inter alia, " That special consideration should be given in j freight charges to companies whose | works are at a long distance | from port. To this committee Mr C. Hudson-, Assistant General Manager of j Railways, made some extraordinary j statements, and some of these were commented upon by. us on October 28 lof last year. It is with this gentleman's " reasons" that Mr Cowan j effectively dealt in his remarks on | Saturday. Frozen meat is carried from Oamaru to Port Chalmers, a distance of 58 miles, for los per ton. The rate per ton from Mataura to the Bluff, a distance of 49 miles, is £1 2s Gd per ton. Asked to explain this apparent anomaly, Mr Hudson- said:—" It will be^ within the memory of members of ! this committee thafc the'business between Oamaru and Dunedin was formerly carried by water, and it was only by reducing the rates that the railway succeeded in getting the business. The Oamaru and Dunedin people enjoy these cheap rates on account of their geographical position, while the Southland Frozen Meat Company enjoys the use of cheap water power not available to the people of Oamaru, who have to provide steam power. To reduce all the railway rates to the level of railway rates in competition with water could not possibly be done, as ifc would involve an enormous sacrifice of revenue. At the same time, to abandon the competitive business would reduce the revenue, which in that case might have to be supplemented by raising the rates at non-competitive points." There is no external evidence to show whether Mr Hudson intended to be facetious or not, but his arguments are very funny though his mode of reasoning would not imply thafc . framers of railway tariffs must have passed well in logic. Bufc even admitting that his argument was serious, it is without the necessary basis of fact. There is practically ho competition in the business of carrying frozen meat between Oamaru and Dunedin. Mr Cowan points out that there are no coastal steamers fitted up for the purpose, ancl the frozen meat steamers call there only afc.. -long intervals. On page 78 of the committee's report the' following * words occur, MiHudson being under examination :—

Mr Wilson : . . . For the 49 miles from Mataura to the Bluff the rate is £1 2s 6d a ton, and for the 48 miles from Waipukurau to the Spit, or from Woodville to the Spit, the rate is £1 8s per ton, according to the petition ? I think it is right. The distances are very similar, and it is comparing one rate with another.

Unfortunately for Mr Hudson, Woodville is not 49 miles from the Spit but 96. We have not the tariff before us, but Mr Cowan says a sheep is carried from Woodville to the Spit for B±d, and 7|d is charged for the 49 miles between Mataura and the Bluff. Such vexatious anomalies as these and others that have been from time to time pointed out destroy all faith in the equity of the system on which the railway tariff is based, and we recommend the company to carry out the expressed determination ofthe chairman to again petition Parliament and persist in demanding equitable treatment.

The export returns for the December quarter are somewhat disappointing, showing a falling off as compared with the corresponding quarter of last year of £33,678, instead of a large increase as might have been expected from the activity of gold mining. The four quarters compare as follow, deducting specie:—

„ v t 1896. 1895. March quarter ... £4,325,182 £3,564,353 June quarter ... 1,835,729 1,859,813 September quarter _. 1,325,723 1,305,625 December quart--- m 1,760,931 1,794,609

, totals £9,247,565 £8,524,100 1 showing a total increase for the year 2 of £723,165. Had the gold returns 3 come up to expectations the increase I would have been much larger. We find, I however, for the quarter a decrease i under the head of gold as compared I with the corresponding quarter of last L. year of no less than .£96,980 (£263,786 : —£360,766), for which it is difficult to . account, as there are more mines and : dredges in operation. There are . also decreases in kauri guni of > £2272 (£90,169-£92,441), in timl ber of £5907 (£36,133—£42,040), in - frozen meats of £27,167 (£182,966— s £210,133), in rabbitskins of £8452 : ,(£28,287-£38,739), in sheepskins of ■ £6806 (£29,133-£35,939), in leather .of £3778 (£17,983-£21,761). There s j are, however, increases in tallow of i £4810 (£33,002_£28,192), in wool iof £26,432 (£700,882-£674,450), .in agricultural products of £59 711 i j (£139,321—£79,610), chiefly in wheat, . | flour, and seeds, and of £4036 in j miscellaneous manufactures (£14,438 I £10,402); so that taking one export : j with another the net decrease for tlie quarter is not large. The figure >.for seeds, £17,549,' is respectable, z and seems to indicate a considerable • increase in the growth of clover, &c, . m Canterbury, for which there is an j outside market. The exports of grain >- | this year should amount to a large _ sum, and there is no reasonable doubt * I that our gold returns will improve, so ! that there is every prospect of our ■ j total exports keeping up to at least , their present volume, the one unsatisfactory item being frozen meats, the > outlook for which is not very encourag- ' ing as regards prices in 'the Home > markets. Our imports show a very ' considerable increase, the figures for ■ the quarter being £2,010,174, as against ' £1,/53,117 for the corresponding quarter last year. Auckland shows an increase of £120,000 (no doubt largely due to gold mining machinery), "Wel-

lington an increase of ,£BB,OOO, Duneciin an increase of £51,000, Lyttelton a decrease of £12,000. The figures for the four quarters are as follov/ :—

1396. 1895. March quarter £1,712,523 £1,755,672 June quarter 1,364,351 1,073,121 September quarter ... 2,050,053 1,818,219 December quarter ... 2,010,174 1.753,117

Totals £7,137,104- £6,4-00,129 which shows an increase for the year of £736,975, or aboufc £12,000 more than the increase of exports. It is a somewhat singular coincidence that the figures should be so close. The laro- e increase in the customs returns shows that the goods imported are going into consumption, and allowing that a considerable sum must be represented by mining machinery, there are clear evidences of greater purchasing power, and no doubt thu million of money distributed in advances to settlers has contributed to this result.