FARM AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2546, 31 December 1902, Page 6

FARM AND STATION.

SOBTH AFRICAN SERYICF. The New Zealand Times has endeavoured to show that there is no valid ground for the dissatisfaction which exporters have expressed over the fact that the Devon, the second of the subsidised steamers to be despatched from New Zealand for South Africa, is being sent up to Gisborne to load for Brisbane. Our contemporary does its best to justify an indefensible proceeding. But the fact 3 are all against it. In the first place, it alleges that it is not in infringement of the terms of the contract that the Devon is being sent to Gisborne to take a cargo to Queensland. The contract, it says, gives the owners of the Devon the right to call at another Australian port besides Fremantle. That is true so far as it goes, but it is only half the _truth. The contract permits the contractors, if they do not get full cargoes in New Zealand, to call at more than one Australian port to fill- up their steamers for South Africa. It distinctly does not entitle them, however, to take cargo to any Australian port besides Fremantle. The fact that the Devon is loading up a meat cargo at Gisborne for Brisbane is, consequently, in breach of the contract. Obviously it is unjust to less-favoured shipping companies that a steamer which is subsidised for a particular service should be permitted to make a deviation from that service in order to deprive them of cargoes which, under fair conditions, they would secure. This particular shipment of meat to Brisbane had to be sent to Australia in any case. It is not through the Devon being sent to Gisborne that the order for it was booked in this colony. It is, therefore, altogether beside the point to assert, as the New Zealand Times does, that " far from any dissatisfaction being felt at the Devon going to Brisbane with produce from this colony, New Zealand ers may not unnaturally congratulate themselves that another outlet is being found for their exports." The fact is that the action of the agents of the Devon in diverting her to Brisbane -with thi? cargo and the action of the Government in sanctioning the diversion represent a wholly unjustifiable interference with the ordinary unsubsidked shipping trade between this colony and Australia. There is another aspect of the question which the New Zealand Times ignores, and that is that the deviation of the Devon from her course with this cargo, which the terms of the contract do not entitle her to take, involves a serious loss of time in the delivery of her cargo in South Africa, and exposes the perishable products she has oil board to risks that the shippers can hardly have contemplated when they consigned their goods by her. If there is one thing which it is more desirable than any other to secure in the trade between New Zealand and South Africa, -it is regularity of shipments ; but that object, the achievement of which was certainly aimed at when the colony offered a subsidy for the establishment of s direct service to the Cape, will be defeated if the subsidised steamers are to be permitted to make wide detours and if their cargoes of meat and dairy produce for South Africa are to be carried up and down the Australian coast into tropical regions, so that the iate of their arrival at their destination will be considerably later than the receipt by the consignee^ of the shipping documenta.

wool, and more- -suitable for the. American demand*, but the Mount Camel, though hardly so light, was of superb quality." The result showed that both clips beat all the previous records of this season. Though it has not been prominently before the public, there is no better or more carefully-bred «tud in -Australia than that raised at Mount Camel. It was formed by the present proprietor over 30 years ago, with the best sheep he could obtain in the colonies, and it has been, bred to the one type ever since. The owner knew what he was breeding for, and was never turned from his object by the changing fashions of the day. The stud is -.bred mainly to provide rams of the highest quality for the general flock, and so ably has the- breeding of this nock been conducted that the clip always realises a very high price. A fleece weighing 171b, the wool being lOin long, was cut from a 12-months'-old sheep last month (November) at Fairview, N.S.W. A record for Australia. The -Tai Tapu (Canterbury) Dairy Company, after deduoting working expenses, paid its suppliers the highly satisfactory price of lOd per pound of butter fat for the xnon&Us of October and November. This colony some time ago joined in with the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the British Board of Trade, the object of which is the dissemination of useful information respecting trade and commerce in all parts of the civilised world. Arrangements have now been made with the Imperial Institute to co-operate in giving information with rc<jard to inquiries of a technical character involving chemical analysis and investigation. The extensive laboratories of the *.bientific and technical department of the institute will be ar the disposal of this ■colony for this purpose whenever required. In this- connection, (say* the Christchurch Press) it is,' believed lhai it i 3 intended to send to tine institute samples of the deposit ojE phosphate rock recently discovered ( in | the vicinity of l)unedin, to have it properly analysed' and information procured as to the best, markets to which this valuable fertiliser may be exported. 1