TRADE OF THE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 230, 22 September 1908, Page 3

TRADE OF THE EAST.

AMERICAS SHIPPING. US RETREAT FROM THE PACIFIC. Sydney, September l'J. Mr. Suttor, Trade Commissioner in tie East, considers the abandonment Jjy the United States railways ot the s export trade should considerably ini- , jprove the prospects in the East. JAPANESE COMPETITION. •iA THROUGH RATE-IT SECRECY , DISTURBED. i The first intimation of the intended "Btandonment of She Pacific export , trade by the big American companies Owning railroads and steamships was received in a cablegram on July 30. (Writing under the same date, the New (Vork-correspondent of the Daily Mail •States:— • "American merchants trading with the Orient were astonished to-day to receive an Intimation tnat the Hill and •Harriman trans-continental railway 'systems have under consideration the abandonment as unprofitable of their extensive Pacific steamship service, in Which are invested millions of dollar-. "The fundamental reason is that 'ihese lines are unable to compete with ithe cheap rates which the Japanese Bteamers find possible, owing to low wages and heavy Government subsidies. But these difficulties were capped by -ithe latest ruling of the American Tn-Itcr-State Commerce Commission. To meet the ireadlv Japanese competition the railways have b..n forced to give cheap rates to China, Japan, Australia, »nd New Zealand. fThe Commission, under pressure from Californian merchants, has now ordered the railways to separate their inland charges from their ocean rntes, and to publish the former. Rather •■than comply the railways,, knowing . what a storm the revelation of their low rates of Oriental shipments would I raise on the Pacific coast, declare that I ' they will sell their steamers on Novem- ► Iber 1 and abandon the Pacific Ocean trade altogether. ' "This trade is valued at aliout '£l ooo,ooo annually, and its cessation Mill rive the Japanese a virtual mono- , poly of American freight carrying Across the Pacific. Last year the Gerjnao lines, tinder stress of Japanese ™tition, transferred several of their Pacific vessels to other routes. Mr 'James Hill, when one of his newest and Sareest ships was wrecked recently, an- • nounced that: for' the same reason it was not worth while to replace it.

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