SUEZ CANAL DUES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13294, 24 May 1907, Page 3

SUEZ CANAL DUES.

(Home Paper.) An unsuccessful attempt by the Commonwealth of Australia to bring about a reduction in the Suez Canal dues is related in a Parliamemntary White Paper, which contains copies of the correspondence on the subject between the Governor-General, the Board of Trade ,the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the Treasury, and the British directors of the canal. The Australians appeal urged that the cheapening of the canal loute would be of considerable ail the British possessions lying east of Egypt, and that as the dividen dof the undertaking was 28 per cet. there was ample margin for a concession.

In an interesting reply the British directors state that while there has been a sixfold increase in the canal traffic during the thirty yeans of its existence, little or no relationship can be traced between this increase and the reductions in rates which have bsen made. The growth has been proportionate to the development of commerce, and lfirge shipowner attach more importance to improving the waterway than to lower d'u<.s; these improvements would b8 imperilled by further concessions. Ihe charges cannot therefore be regarded as a deterrent; at the same time Jthey nave betn I educed by 14 per ceiit. during the last three years*. As to the pravent dividend of 28 per cent., it is pointed out that from the formation of the company up to the last return the average has amounted in round figures to V 6% per cent., while owing to the increase in the value of the shares, the return to purchasers for some years past has just ranged between 3 and 4 per cent. The body of shareholders, of course, was interested in the growth of the dividend, but the British directors were still hopeful that a method of adjusting the partition of surplus revenue .more acceptable to the clients may be eventually arrived at. Ihat the inter-Empire trade would be beneficially affected, add the directors, is no doubt a valid reason for pressing for further reductions, but these would have a precisely opposite effect upon the foreign rivals of our maritime commerce through tho canal, and it would be futile to urge this argument upon the Continental members of the board. As a proof that a reduction in the tariff does not necessarily mean an increrase in the traffic, it is stated that during the past year, and immediately following a reduction of 75 centimes per ton, the receipts would have been considerably less but for the return of Bussian troops. As British directors, therefore, they urge, in conclusion, that any further reductions in the tariff would practically amount to a subsidy to ships using the canal, and would involve a pecuniary loss to His Majesty's Government.

These views having received the endorsement of the departments mentioned, Lord Elgin informed the Governor-General of the Commonwealth that the Treasury and the Board of Trade did not think that anything would be gained by an attempt to pursue the object in question -without due regard to the interests of those who had a purely financial concern in the canal.