WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Wairarapa Age, 9 December 1921, Page 4

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The letter which we publish this morning from Mr E. C. Holmes points out a few anomalies in freights which the farmers might usefully take as their text at Tuesday's meeting. There is an old axiom in freight scales that they should be fixed at what the traffic will bear. That is to say, very valuable commodities which people will purchase in any case may be charged high rates, whereas articles of less value though possibly more •bulky and difficult to carry should be charged less in order not to kill the business. How does this axiom fit in with the new conditions which have suddenly come upon the producing industry in New Zealand? It is only necessary to compare the few freights which Mr Holmes quotes to see that it has fallen to the ground entirely. Wool is charged almost double the rate on hemp, and meat, which is in a worse case than any of them, is charged almost three times as much. The fact is that the commodity which has been earning the dividends for the shipping companies for years past is now freighted so high that it is almost crippled. These are questions upon which farmers’ meetings might concentrate with advantage.