THE CARGO LINER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1911, Page 12

THE CARGO LINER.

Consistent encroachment on the sphere hitherto filled by the tramy stejiuner is charged against the caTgo liner. The indictment was forcibly put by the president of the Ciyde Steamship Owners Association, in a recent address. He said the owners of tramp steamevs view with, concern the reduced area, from which they can get anything besides coal cargoes from the United Kingdom, to the East or to South America. Not so many years ago, he remarked, they were able to get rough cargoes, but nowadays they rarely obtained them direct from shippers, and only secured them in the shape of sub-contracts from some of the large federated liner companies. The president declares that barriers have been built up against the tramp steamer, and that rough cargo of low value ought to be an open market foi' all comers, as heretofore. The statement^ confirms a good deal that has been said of late in England with regard to the energy of the cargo liner. The complaints are by no means confined to outwsird freights. The tramp steamer, accustomed to go here, there, and"" everywhere abroad in the confident expectation that ho will find a welcome, now sometimes discovers that tho representative of the cargo liner has been there before him, and has got all the business. The explanation is that the cargo -liner belongs to a company which depends very largely upon the organisation of its % trade, and which has learned not to despise the day of small things. How the tramp learner can meet ,this ever-growing oijganisation is a puzzle-. Fortunately, the commerce of the world goes on increasing, and new ports and new trades are being steadily opened up. Fortunately, too, for the tramp steamer, the area-' of coal supply in the United Kingdom steadily increases. There is no need, therefore, to try and guess what homeward freights would be if there were no outward coal cargoes to keep them in check. GAOL FOR SMUGGLERS. Would-be smugglers of 'goods into New York would, do well to take warning jrom the fate which has overtaken a well-known English society woman. Some time ago ehe arrived at New York from England, and when making a declaration for the Customs she omitted to include a sable coat valued at £1200 and a l&rg.e amount of jewellery. These articles were discovered, and the lady was immediately apprehended and taken before a magistrate, who, after hearing the facts of the case, committed the offender to prison for three days, and ordered her, in addition, to pay a fine of £400. When, some time ago, the wife of an American millionaire was convicted of attempted smuggling the judge declared that he would send the next offender to gaol, and the present case shows that the threat was no idle one, '