JAPAN S TRADE VICTORIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13703, 18 September 1908, Page 7

JAPAN S TRADE VICTORIES.

AMERICANS DRIVEN FROM THE PACIFIC. - American merchnihts tradmg 'TTith the Orient were astonished 1 last, month («iy« a New York correspondent) to receive fjin intimation that the Hill and 'Hapxnfiui transcontinental railway systems htive i*nder consideration the abandonment as Unprofitable of their extensive Pacific fihip service, in which are invested million of ~ dollars. The fundamental" reason -is that .thesei" lines are unable ,tp compiete with the cheap rates which the Japanese svearners find possible owing to lowwages and. heavy government- :S littt these difficulties are capped by the latent ruling of the American Inter-Stata Commerce Commiieion. To meet tjie deadly Japanese competition the railways b§yebeen, forced ~to~ give cheap thrjftifch 'rates to China, Japan, Australia and New 'Zealand. The commission under pressure from Californian merchants, has now qrdefed the railways to separate the is island charges from their ocean rates, aqd ta» publish the former. Rather than comply'the railways, knowing what a storm ol revelation of their low rates or Orifjtal shipments would raise on the Pacific declare that they will sell tbehi steameis on let November and abandon the Pacific Ocean altogether. ' This trade is valued at about £1,000,000 annually, and tis cessation will -give the Japanese a virtual monopoly of American freight-carrrying across the Pacific. Last year the German lines, under stress of Japanese competition ( transferred several of their Pacific"vessels to other routes. Mr. James Hill, one of.newest and largest fhips was wrecked recently, announced that,. for the same , reason, it was not worth while to replace it. A representative of one of tJip principal German lines told the correspondent that the reports that the Canadian Pqcifici Railway would join the Americans fey abandoning its Pacific steamship service wsre unfounded, the British mail subsidy enabling ,it to meet Japanese competition. He adds that if the service aeasxfs the North German Lloyd \rilT; i*»inediatelv extend its lines between Yokohama and San Francisco to compete with the Japanese