SHIPPING CHARGES.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 January 1922, Page 4

SHIPPING CHARGES.

AN important report. ■ I-lOW NEW ZEALAND TRADE IS j HANDICAPPED. j WELLINGTON, Jan. 10. Following ard extracts from the report of the Imperial Shipping Committee referred to in cablegrams published last week :—- ‘‘The percentage of freight paid to the price received', e.i.f.e., has risen •m' the - case of beef from 15. in 1913 to 42 per dent, in the .slimmer of 1921; in the cash of l'ahib the proportion is still lbw, 15.5' pci l dent, in' 1921 as ' compared* with 11.2 in T 914, while ih tile case of mutton the pre-war pro--1 pofti'oii' of 13. T per cent, cofnplared •\itfth-V pPesdiit pbrcerttalgd' of 26;8. \ 'Freights are ulVdoiibtddly high, but the 1 evidence before the committee tended 1 to shoiv that shipping costs had risen: |. t,y 1920' to about thred times the preI war IdveT. Sihde 1920 thdsd costs have ! fallen to some extent, but very much 1 less than prices generally.” To apply another test the committee quotes freights from the River !plate, stating that the rates on mile- ‘ age hiisis are ,4'4d: per ton' mile for the •Plate trad'd, as compared with .85d per ton mile for New Zea'tnl' Haling : into account the time oecnp c l on tl:e

respective round voyages including coastwise itinerary, the result is that while a. Plate vessel can earn under present conditions during rlie year en each pound of meat for which she has room about- 5d as a. maximum the New Zealand vessel can only earn about 31 d. NO PROSPECT OF PROFIT.

The report proceeds : “As a third and final test, wo have made direct investigation into the question of piofits derived from tire New Zealand freights. The general evidence given to us by Lord Jncbcape was to the effect that while the shipping, companies concerned wore making profits in 1920, the whole of those profits would he wiped

[out this year, and there was no prospect of any recovery in sight. In his judgment, the big lines would be in a worse position at the end of 1920 than they were at the end of 1913. “We have had before us more specific evidence. Through the courtesy of certain shipowners engaged, in the New Zealand trade, definite audited information as to the outgoings and incomings for a continuous series of round voyages in that trade during the first half of the present year (1921) were made available, in confidence, and the rsuJts were submitted to the committe. Vo are of opinion that these -show, even if we attach relatively low capital values to the ships, in question, that the freights earned were not unreasonable. : PROLONGED ROUND VOYAGES. “The unusually prolonged round voyi ages in the New Zealand trade in- ! tensifies the disadvantage at which the J: trade is placed as compared with the jj Plate trade.

“It appears clear that the prolongs

tion of the voyage is largely due to the practice of collecting the cargo of the same ship at many different and widely distant ports, and to-the multiplicity of parcels and of marks, sub-marks, and grades, the sorting of. which on discharge involves loss of time and extra labour. Undoubtedly the earning capacity of the ship would be' considerably increased, or in other words the cost of transport would Be reduced, if some practical steps could be taken to simplify these practices. this object in 1 view the shipping Companies and 1 the shippers might advantageously co-operate. “A further factor of much ihip’ortari'ce has to BP kept in nVihd. At pi'esent oiitwaVd caYgP t 6 New Zealand is very scarce, arid consequently the Homeward cargo has to bear a disproportionate spare of the cost of the round voyage. In 1913 the total weight of iron and steel products exported from the United Kingdom to New Zealand was 1'14,000 tons, but during the first seven months of 1921 it was 18,000 tons. The figures for all the United' Kingd’oliV exports to New eZaland are roughly. 160,000 tons in 1913, 89,000 toils iri- 1920 find 38,000 tons during the first seven months of 1921. “Our gen'eral coneliisiCn is that under existing conditions the current freights charged by the lin'es trading to New Zealand’ not unreasonable.”