THE ALLOTMENT OF SHIPPING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16046, 10 February 1920, Page 4

THE ALLOTMENT OF SHIPPING.

Last week a local resident, who has recently returned from England, asserted in our columns that the Imperial Government has been dumping Argentine and Brazilian meat into England ever since the armistice, that England has allowed Argentine three times the shipping space allotted to Australasia, and that there never been a shortage of shipping to justify the treatment meted out to New Zealand. Mr Massey, for reasons best known to himself, denies the statements of our informant, and told a deputation of farmers yesterday that the Argentine was not being favoured by British authorities, as was asserted, adding that it was absurd to say England was being allowed to penalise the Dominions. Allegations are not safely to be rejected merely because they are unpalatable, and the case of the producers and exporters of New Zealand would be hopeless indeed if Mr Massey and/the colonial and Imperial authorities are not in a mood for truth or refuse to face the truth. And the truth is—-unpalatable as it may seem to Mr Massey—that New Zealand is not receiving fair treatment.. In substantiation of the declarations of our contributor, who has recently arrived from the Old Land, we quote from the London Times of September last a statement showing that the Argentine exporters have been more favourably treked. thanJNew Zealand shippers.

The frozen meat exports from the beginning of January, 1919, to the end of April, were as follows: Feet. From Argentine 15,000,000 From Australasia 5,000,000 the space allotted being thus three times the space allotted to the whole of Australia and New Zealand. And no doubt the same disparity has continued up to the present. It may be said in justification of this extraordinary disproportion that the allotment of refrigerated space bore reasonable relation to the actual exports of frozen produce prior to the war. But this was not the case, for the exports of frozen produce from Australia and New Zealand before the war and during the early part of the war—when freights ■were available —were about equal in amount to those from the Argentine. In the year 1914 the Argentine exports of frozen meat were 34,000,000 cubic feet, and the Australasian exports of meat 30,000,000 cubic feet, in addition to which the colonies sent large quantities of dairy produce, rabbits, and other frozen goods. Yet, last year Australia and New Zealand obtained only one-third of the refrigerated space that was allotted to the Argentine. And. Mr Massey declares that the Argentine is not being favoured by the British authorities! It is high time the commission representing the meatfreezing industry got to work to throw a little more light on the subject. To the commission we look to solve the question of the satisfactory disposal of our produce.