NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 31

NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE

(Frou Our Own Cokrbsfoxdext.) LONDON, February 15. Mr J. Graham Gow, the' New Zealand Trade Commissioner, and Mr H. C. Cameron, the Produce Commissioner in London, are paying visits to the larger centres of uioducc di.-.tiibution. Yesterdpy I had a chat with Mr Gow, who briefly posted me up to dale regarding his movements. He informed me that ho had beon to much im-pi-essed by the careless method of handling Australian and New Zealand produce in South Africa, and he thought co highly of the new endless, elevators adopted by the New Zealand Shipping Company in the discharge of cargo here — the elevator's being completely protected from the elements — that, lie had recommended that !n ti e event cf steamship lines being subsidised by the New Zea'and Government for the South African trade, there should be a strict stipalation that some suc'i method as that adopted by the company named rfiould be employed. "At 1 previously informed you," ?aid Mr Gow, "'I interfered, when I was in South Africa, with the way in which produce — particularly butter — was being discharged. Cases, weie slung out :n an old dirty sail, dumped down, two or three boxc3 i being broken at nearly every slinging, to ho roughly nailed up again after being handled and dirtred by a lot of i>lack fellows. Who could be expected to buy x iro chice after that" " What about New Zealand outt. r there?'' "Oh! 1 am ending out to South Afncu copies of Mr H. C Cameron's reports, which, give the quotations of all colon :-l butter, to show the->e peorl.- there whit position our butter really occupies. When I told them that New Zealand butter occupied j» place as high up as any butter imported ovweca into London they iaughtJ at me and would not belip\e what I r&id. lint here i-> a report ot Mr CamsrDn'n which proves it, the market quotation for Now Zealand and DaiiL-h butter being (he -.imr namely, 110-. Australian butter m i oiiiid- rably below. Thi-> wetk I find there ib only j. difference of 9d per cwt in the two. The butter that has been sold in South Africa a.' ' New Zealand ' never came from our colony at all. It was the worst kind of Australian butter sold as ' New Zealand,' other sorth being diapossd of as ' Melbourne' and ' Sydney.' So I am sending out to the large sellers and the secretaries of Chambers eif Commerce whom 1 met there copies of the re port -s, giving the true facts, and a- B k:ng them to lo their be~t to get the newrpapers x> publish the information." " Do you find shipping people take kindly to the idea of nutting on a line of steamer* from New Zealand to the Cape?" "Yes." was Mr (low's reply. "Representatives of two or three shipping firms have called upon me this week, and one firm at least would be prepared, oiicp they 'aw their way clear, to build boat- suitable for ■tho trade." Tt will hp remembered that Mr Gow of opinion that the.se boats should be about 3000 tons burden and of comparatively nhal ■ low di aught to allow of their going from port to port He pieferred not going in t-> detaili' just yet, but from another quartei I gather that the firm lie referred to as being prepared to build boats snecially for

the trade is «• colonial one. Olh 1 s whti have gone into the matter consider ' hat "tha costs of the service would run int«> something like, though rather under,' £100,000 ji year, or- about thrice the amount of the subsidy offered by the New -Zealand Go- ■ vernment. • From what I -can learn, it i-s. likeljr that an offer will be made — if it has not already been made — to put on a fleet, liberty being given to call at Melbourne or Sydney should there at any time not ba sufficient freight in New Zealand for anj vessel.