WOOL FREIGHTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10068, 9 February 1909, Page 4

WOOL FREIGHTS.

(Per Press Association - .) Wellington, February 8. At -Mastert.on on Saturday Mr Buchanan, M.P., made some complaints regarding the attitude of the shipping companies on the shipment of wool, and to-day inquiries were made locally about the matter. From the point- of view of the shipping companies it appears that some time before it was known that Mr G. H. Scales (shipping agent for the Freight Reduction Committee) had decided to carry with steamers, the Home trading shipping companies had decided to open the wool season with low freight rates. It is further stated that at the time the shipping companies indicated that rates would fall still lower as the season progressed. Last year the shipping companies carried, wool at 9-16 d per lb, and this season the rate is 7-16 d at the opening of the season, and to-day it is only |d, a reduction which has been in operation since the middle of January. The Freight Reduction Committee's charge on its chartered steamers, it was pointed out, is 7-16 d, or id higher than the companies' rates. "Most of tlie statements made by Mr Buchanan/' another authority said, "are entirely misleading. It should he remembered that the companies have to provide freight for the whole country all the year round, and frequently boats were lying idle for considerable periods. In one instance it is known that a company made a few inquiries amongst some of its regular shippers as to whether they required space for their clips, and at the same time intimated that it might not be possible to ■guarantee space later in the season. The company in question has not refused to accept a bale of wool from anyone." The steamers which have been chartered by the Freight Reduction Committee, it appeal's, are what is known as the Clan line, and one of them, the Clan M'Laren, is at present in Wellington. It is complained in some quarters that these vessels are partly manned by colored labor, and therefore have an advantage over the companies which employ nothing but white labor.