MEAT FREIGHTS TO ENGLAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3487, 11 January 1921, Page 10

MEAT FREIGHTS TO ENGLAND

A FIVE PER CENT. REDUCTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, January 9. 1 The Government has been for some time past in communication with the Imperial authorities in regard to freight rates ter frozen meat and other produce shipped

from New Zealand to Great Britain. These rates are on a very higil basis when comfjxed with those in operation prior to the ar, and although it has been fully realised that the cost of running refrigerated ships has been greatly increased, the additional burden imposed upon the producers is so heavy that every effort was made to relieve the position as far as possible. A cable message has now come from the High Commissioner stating that the Ministry of Food has informed him that the revised rates for the carriage of private meat to the United Kingdom have been fixed as follows: —lgd per lb for mutton, 2d per lb for lamb, and lid per lb for beef, all plus 5 per cent. This means a reduction of 5 per cent, on the rates previously fixed to which the Government had taken exception. In those rates the charges for mutton, lamb, and beef respectively were the same as quoted above, but with an additional 10 per cent, instead of 5 per cent., as now established. The Government is in further communication with the High Commissioner on this subject of freight rates in view of the heavy burden which is still imposed upon producers.