H.—2Ba,

Sess. 11.—1897. NEW ZEALAND.

DIRECT SERVICE BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA. COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF FREIGHTS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND EUROPE (FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE RELATING THERETO).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Wellington, 2nd December, 1897. W. T. Glasgow, Esq., Secretary and Inspector, H.M. Customs, Wellington. Ekfeeiung to the various interviews I have had with you and Mr. Shannon in connection with your reference to the Gear Company in your memorandum to the Premier of 12th March last, and to my letter to Mr. Shannon, dated 17th ultimo, I shall be glad if you will take an early opportunity of amending that portion of your official document which sets forth that the Gear Company obtains reductions in freight which they do not allow to their clients. The statement is absolutely incorrect; and, so far as I can gather from Mr. Shannon, it appears to have been inserted through a misunderstanding. Seeing that its publication is likely to do serious injury to this company, and as I will be pleased to allow you to examine our books in order to refute it, I trust you will take immediate steps to rectify the matter, as I am quite sure you have no desire that my company shall suffer thereby. W. H. Williams, General Manager. Mr. Shannon. I shall be glad to have your remarks with reference to the above. 2nd December, 1897. W. T. Glasgow.

Mr. Glasgow. Theke has been a misunderstanding. Your memorandum of the 12th March conveys the impression that farmers ship under the arrangement between the Gear Company and the shipping companies. As a matter of fact, they have never done so, and could not do so, because the arrangement referred to operated only in respect of meat bought by the Gear Company from farmers in New Zealand. It was therefore misleading and incorrect to say that the Gear Company got a reduction which was not allowed by them to the farmers. I find it to be the ease, as Mr. Millward says, that in all cases where farmers send meat through the Gear Company they are charged only the same rate of freight as that paid by the company. 18th December, 1897. G. V. Shannon.

Hon. Premier. I kegket that the above inaccuracy has crept into my report of the 12th March last. In justice to the Gear Company I think this correspondence should be printed and placed on the table of the House as supplementary to H.-28. I shall be glad if you will approve of this being done. 18th December, 1897. . W. T. Glasgow, Secretary.

Approved. R. J. Seddon, 20th December, 1897. Approximate Cost of Paper.— Preparation, not given ; printing (1,250 copies), 17s.

By Authority: John Maokay, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB97. ■

Price 3d.]