THE SHIPMENT OF OUR PRODUCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3160, 7 October 1914, Page 10

THE SHIPMENT OF OUR PRODUCE.

The Prime Minister’s assurance some few weeks ago that the Government would take every precaution to ensure adequate cold storage accommodation being available when the export season opened has not been sufficient to allay in the meanwhile the anxiety of producers in regard to the reverse contingency. This anxiety can in the circumstances be readily understood. With the season for shipment practically at hand, the diversion to serve as transports of nine steamers with refrigeration space for approximately a million carcases of meat and some three million boxes of butter was sufficient cause for grave apprehension among those whose material well-being is dependent upon the availability* - of adequate facilities for the regular disposal of their products. Apart from being a matter of immediate convenience, such regularity of disposal of produce is a no mean factor in determining the price which it ultimately realises on the market, and any conditions tending to upset that balance between supply and demand upon which profitable returns depend must inevitably be viewed with concern by producers. Particularly is this the case with perishable commodities like dairy produce, whose quality does not improve by keeping too long in cold storage, and with which we have to compete with the greatest dairying producing countries in the world. Any congestion of shipping which would result in our mid-season produce arriving on the market contemporaneously with large consignments from Holland and Denmark on the reopening of their busy season must consequently serious affect the prices which our produce realises. With such possibility not altogether improbable, it was quite natural that exporters should desii’e definite information rather than probabilities in regard to the refrigerated space which would be available. _ Such information as has been on this important question will certainly relieve any anxiety with regard to export facilities until the end of December. According to the Prime Minister’s statement in the House of Representatives last week, three ships are timed to depart in October, five in November, and five in December, the total number being two in excess of that "required for the corresponding period of last year. • These arrangements will, therefore, obviate any congestion this year; but from the fact that the < Government has only 14 vessels in sight for January and February as against 18 required for these months last season, it would seem that there is a possibility of delay early next year. Further, it is not altogether a certainty that even 18 steamers will meet the requirements of our export trade during the height of the season. The alteration of the arrangements in connection with the despatch of the transports has not improved the position. Had the original time-table for their departure been adhered to, it would have been possible for them to have been back in the Dominion waters in time to meet all requirements during the busy season; but, as it is, the anticipation that they will be back by the end of February may, owing to unforeseen circumstances, prove to lack in realisation. The Government, however, is fully alive to the importance of the position, and the Prime Minister’s assurance, repeated in Parliament last week, that sufficient ships would be available to cari’y our produce to the Old Country and that there is not the slightest cause for anxiety, seems to bespeak of a conviction in this regard based on an accurate grasp of the situation and of how it can he met. That any difficulty which may arise will admit of immediate satisfactory solution is a matter to be sincerely desired in the interests of producers of this Dominion.