THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 948, 31 January 1911, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

The hemp market is still in a parlous state, and there is no immediate prospect ot improvement. Business is much about the same as it was before Christmas. Millers’ samples are coming forward in some strength, but there is but little it any demand. Prices on Monday last were : For good fair £l6 ios per ton, and for fair £l6 to ,£l6 5s for millers. Tow was on a more satisfactory footing, realising 10s for first grade, £7 for second, and £6 5s for third grade. Last week a deputation of millers waited upon representatives of shipping companies with a view to a reduction of shipping rates in order to help the industry in its present condition. It is understood that the reply from the companies trading with the United Kingdom is to the effect that no further reduction in freight can be made at the present time. The rate to Loudon, for example, is 45s per ton, out of this the shipping companies have to pay dumping, storage, trucking, loading, and unloading charges amounting to 20s per ton, leaving the ship 25s a ton. The hemp is carried by dead weight. By measurement (40ft being the measurement per ton) it would amount to 120 ft. It works out, therefore, that the companies on a measurement basis are carrying the hemp at 8s 4d per ton, which is considered to be as low as the carriage could be possibly done for. There is yet to be ascertained if any reduction on flat freights is obtainable on the Australian and Vancouver and San Francisco runs.—Post.