NO AGREEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21994, 1 July 1933, Page 12

NO AGREEMENT

FREIGHTS FROM AUSTRALIA WHAT OF THE FUTURE? (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 22. The failure of the annual freight conference of the Australian Overseas Transport Association to reach an agreement with regard to charges on Australian produce shipped to England may have far-reaching results. Wool was not concerned with the negotiations which were held this week, but the shippers of wool had made it clear to the shipping companies that if concessions were granted in other directions they would expect similar treatment. This announcement may have embarrassed the shipping companies, but whatever happened the demand for a reduction in freights was not acceded to. The producers have been to great pains to impress upon the companies the need for reducing charges, but the companies, apparently, do not see their way to bear the whole of the burden, or even any part of it. Under the arrangements ruling in the past the shippers have agreed to give all their cargoes to the lines signing the agreement—the conference lines, they are called —and the shipping companies have agreed to provide all the refrigerated am other space that is required. This has effectively excluded any other company frdm competing for the Australian trade. Since the disagreement was announced the decision of the Blue Star Line to enter the Australian trade has special significance. The Blue Star Company, it is pointed out in Sydney, has been endeavouring to secure a footing in New Zealand on the ground that competition is an advantage in such matters. The bid of the Blue Star Line for Australian trade will be watched with the utmost interest. So far there has been no suggestion that a freight war is imminent, but in the circumstances even that might eventuate. Enormous possibilities are opened up. Vestey’s have enormous interests In the Northern Territory, and as the same company is a large shareholder in the Blue Star Line it is suggested that because of the operation of the Ottawa agreement Vesteys will turn their interest to their Australian holdings, in preference to holdings in South, America, and that the company will take chilled beef from Australia to the London market. It is said that the advent of the Blue Star Line would be of great importance to th e beef industry of Australia, more particularly so if Vesteys’ works at Darwin were to reopen. Australia could command a bigger market if it could land chilled, instead of frozen, meat in London, and that seems to bo the aim of the Bine Star Line. ~ . In their conference with the shipping companies this week Australian producers have pointed out that the producers In New Zealand are given lower rates, and they said they found it difficult to understand why this should be so. The shipping companies have not published a reply, and as the whole of the proceedings Acre in camera it is impossible to state their views. It is known, however, that they wore guided very largely by the fact that many of the ships that com e to Australia to load travel from England practically empty.