WOOL FREIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2928, 14 November 1916, Page 4

WOOL FREIGHTS

gj r _A' portion of a letter /which I recently mote to' the Taranaki Executive of the Fanners' Union was quoted by one of your correspondents. A correction to 'mv statement appears in your columns dated November 10, by four gentlemen signing, themselves as the representatives of tho 'shipping, companies. It is couched.in such courteous and restrained language (very different to that which one of their number was reported to have used m an interview when the rate was announced) that it almost disarms criticism. I am obliged to them for informing me that I made the statement under a misapprehension (a misapprehension, I should like to add, with which Mr. Scales had'nothing to do). The rate in Australia is 2Jd., and if the 10 per cent, primage is added, it will bo seen that the shipper pays more than 3d. Hero the circumstances are somewhat different. Much of the wool comes by coastal steamers, the freight on which, together with storage charges,"havo been hitherto paid by the shipping companies. Our rate was announced by the companies as 2fd. and 2Jd. The primage added to 2jjd. for greasy wool- brings that rate up to something like 2|>d., and if the other charges spoken of were added, to .this would make something more than that figure. In tho case of the 2§d. rate, the primage brings it up to a microscopic figure under 3d., but if the other charges I mentioned are added, to over that figure. I presume it makes little difference to tho shipper whether he has to pay it under the heading of rate, primage or other charges. Still I am obliged for tho correction; it would be uuparliamentary not to accept it.

The only other thins' which sails for remark is this, from the fact that thcso gentlemen aro able to state what was or was not contemplated, the natural presumption is that without reference., to others, they can sit alone in conclave and decide what rate we must payr - When your readers "contemplate" that fact it will give them much food for reflection.—l am, etc., JAMES G. WILSON. Bulls, November 13.

Sir,—ln your issuo of the 6th instant you give an account of an interview of your Wanganui correspondent with Sir James Wilson on tho exorbitant rise in wool freights. Sir James Wilson states that a penny a poundon wool, butter, and cheese would brine; in £1,600,000 in two years, which would enable tho producers to .have a fleet of cargo steamers second to nono in tho world, and Sir James''winds up his remarks by saying that the farmore havo the whole thing in their own hands. I quite agree with Sir James's remarks as to the farmers having it all in their own hands, but his statement as to the amount a penny a. pound on

the wool, butter and cheese exported for two years would produce, is much! below tho mark, as it would bring in £1,427,554 in one year. The total ex* ports to tho United Kingdom for, 1914* 15 were as under; — £ Wool, 197,266,9141b., at Id. >■ per lb 821,945 Butter, 48,615,5041b. at Id. , per lb 202,564 Cheese, 96,742,9121b. at Id. per lb 403,095 Total £1,427,604 or nearly ono and a half million. Now, how easy it would bo if the farmers would only pull together and for a New Zealand Producers' '-Shipping Company and do their own carrvinc. 7^ ■, Form a company of, say, three mil-'' lion capital, one and a half million paid, up would mean practically that the pro-; ducers would only have to find a penny iper pound on the amount of the three products exported in ono year. Say •that by the formation of the company; freights were reduced only one penny,, •the producers would be recouped the! total amount of their paid-up capital in' one year. Sir James Wilson credits the Scales Company with having been chiefly instrumental in keeping wooL freights down, which is entirely correct! aB the following' will show:—ln the 1913-14 season greasy wool freight was •3d. per pound; in October, 1915; freights were arranged to be one pennyy Then the Scales steamer was commandeered by the Government, so in February, 1916, tho freights were jumped up to ljd., and in October last they, were raised another penny to.2sd., and I have not tho slightest doubt that if the Scales Company had not had s vessel this year, freights would have been raised to 3d. The wool-growers are paying quite lsd. freight on wool more than they should do, to the total of, say (on last year's amount exported), £2,232,000 odd, and the butter and cheese men are also being largely, exploited, as the following will show:— Freight on butter, 1913, was 2/6 per bos Freight on cheese, 1913, was $d. per lb." iFreiijht on butter, 1916, 'is 3/9porboS .Freight on cheese, 1916, is §d. per lb.

.. I hope, therefore, that the producers will wake up and set to work at once to form a company so that it may be ready in the field at the conclusion of war, and I trust that Sir James Wilson (with his usual energy and solicitude for the welfare of the farmer) will take immediate stops to bring the matter prominently beforo th whole of the: farmers' unions of the Dominion; with a view to joint and prompt action be•ing taken. —I am, etc., H. D. VAVASOUR. Ugbrooke, November 10.