HIGH FREIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2863, 30 August 1916, Page 7

HIGH FREIGHTS

BIG WAR TAX

ON DOMINION PRODUCERS

Reference to shipping freights was taade at tho annual meeting of the [Wellington Meat Export Company yes- . terday. The chairman of direotors, Mr. AV. .6. Poster, said: "Freights have gone up to an extent much beyond the 'most pessimistic expectation, in view of the large margin of profit earned by shipping companies. It is. however, beyond question that whilst- these freights press heavily on tho shipper, they can hardly be said to.be above the possible earnings bad the ships been .diverted to other routes And employment, but it is not unreasonable to assume that there'is. in existence a • combination which, by its wide operations, under present necessitous conditions, ,forces freights to levels which on 'open' condition of the shipping market would preclude, until now rates are seriously, if not ruinously, oppressive. The possibility of control is, of , course, entirely beyond Dominion shippers and freight users, but it'should not be so in respect of the Imperial Government. It has commandeered our -\ meat for its fighting forces, and for . civilian consumers, and it should noE he impossible to it to apply to the gander the. same sauce that is .good j' for the goose,' but of course) in view of the per cent, tax on shipping profits, which comes out of overseas .pockets, it is easy to-see that it. would be a somewhat heroically unselfish action to deprive itself of,this tax, but the slumbering conscience of the powers that be isbeing awakened (vide.Press 'Association cablegram of August ■■ 22, wherein Miv Winston # Churchill stigmatised the rise in freights as a'scandal), and perhaps they may provido a limitation of freights instead of a taxation of profits therefrom. May it be that the Imperial Government is not sufficiently independent of nnanoial potentates,, many of whom are intimately concerned in shipping interests. However, it may be some slight coneolation that, by way of Imperial-War of profits, New Zealand pro- ' ducers aro willy .nilly indirectly contributing handsomely to the prosecution of the war."