BEANS AND FREIGHT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14133, 12 February 1910, Page 7

BEANS AND FREIGHT.

It is strange* to what impulses the recent improvement in the shipping outlook may be attributed. For instance, nobody would have imagined that the export of beans from Manchuria would have been on a scale of such magnitude as to give quite a fillip to freights by providing many cargoes and drawing ships away on long-distance voyages. This export trade seems to have assumed big proportions in a remarkably short time. One of its centres is the port of Dalny, and it is said that during the season which began in November, 1908, and closed in June, 1909, over 150,000 tuns of beans wore shipped thence to Europe, chiefly to Liverpool, Hull, and Bremen. During the same period 143,000 tons wore shipped from Vladivostok, of .which more, than onehalf went to the United Kingdom. At the present time the trade has assumed even greater dimensions, and is .affording business for a large amount' of British shipping. It would appear that the export can'bp developed enormously, and that there is a very large market for the article. It is used in Great Britain for the production of oil suitable for cooking, soap-making, lubricating, and other purposes. At the same time, the crushed beans form an admirable food for cattle. It is said that attention was first called to the soya bean when manufacturers of cottonseed oil found their supplies from India and Egypt falling short. This sort of thing is catching, and there is now an expectation that Central China will endeavour to compete with Manchuria for the European market. The more the merrier so far as the ship owner is concerned.