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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2437, 10 January 1881, Page 2

Tin-: prospects of the fanners of New Zealand are brightening. The crops all over this part of tiie colony are looking healthy, and if no accidents occur, the yield will be as good, if not better, than last year’s, while the quality of the grain is likely to be superior. Added to this, labor at one time a scarcity during the harvest season, is cheap iind plentiful, and what between reaping and binding machines and other appliances, manual labor is gradually being superseded. It may be rough on the farm laborer to be driven to the hills, but it is decidedly beneficial to the cultivator. The cost of harvesting we are told has been reduced from 40 to 50 per cent since last season. Then again, prices are steadily maintained in the London market, and the farmers of the colony can look with considerable confidence to the results of direct shipments. The main difliculty with which they will have to contend will be the freights. It is significant that just as the harvest is approaching seamen’s organisations are beginning to manifest themselves. A few days ago a notice was posted at Lyttelton advising seamen to hold out for an increase of wages. The object of such a movement is not so much to benefit the seamen as to cripple the colonial shipper, and to prevent vessels being chartered in the colony to proceed home. Such attempts to restrict the control of the shipping trade to old mercantile firms at home or in the colonies, and to fetter the farmer in his operations, show the necessity of agricultural organisation in New Zealand. Until the co-operative movement among our farmers has grown sufficiently to admit of its members providing a fleet of their own, or at least securing vessels on the most reasonable terms possible direct from the British shipowners, they will always be liable to this kind of black-mailing. Seamen cannot be blamed for getting the highest value they can for their services, but they should not allow themselves to be made cat’s-paws of. The aiders and abettors in this instance, are, we feel pretty confident, no no friends of the British seaman, but a small class who desire to discourage direct shipments by making freights expensive. If the farmers, however, are only united they can effectually resist combinations of this kind. Last year the freights were something outrageous, and if shippers and shipping agents are allowed their way this season a largo proportion of the profits that should find its way to the pockets of the producer will be swallowed up in the charges for transit. The management of the Farmers’ Co-operative Association, we trust, will see to this matter, and make ample arrangements, if possible, for independent shipments on terms that if high, will at all events not be extortionate.

Negotiations are pending between the Tiraaru Harbor Hoard and the Railway Department in reference to the working of the Breakwater. It is proposed to lay down a line of rails along the new wharf to be connected with the railway sheds so that goods imported or intended for export will pass through the hands of the railway department, a moderate charge being made for the process. As the tratlic of the Breakwater will not be exclusively railway traffic, the Board ought to reflect whether the trade of the town is likely to be couvenienced or inconvenienced by the handing over of the wharf and Breakwater to the state. A large quantity of grain, and produce intended for shipment arrives in teams, while a great deal of merchandise delivered in town and country might just as well escape the infliction of railway dues. If we are going in for direct shipments why should we tolerate impediments in the shape of railway dues? There is plenty of room for drays and wagons on the solid structure of the Breakwater, and if the approaches were only formed and a travelling crane for swinging cargo about provided on the wharf,' vessels of small tonnage might now be loading and discharging instead of being moored in the calm roadstead. The railway department are anxious that Timaru and its Breakwater should be another Lyttelton, but it should be remembered that Timaru is not Lyttelton, that we have a local trade, a good back country, and something better than a two mile railway tunnel for an outlet. Our storekeepers, merchants, and fanners should not be compelled to pay tribute to the railway department unnecessarily. At Dunedin they do not do so, for the Harbor Board of Otago are too jealous of their revenue to allow the railways to monopolise the traffic of their wharves. By the process of working the Breakwater which the railway department propose, and which the members of the Harbor Board have so far acquiesced in, goods intended for town or country or meant for shipment will have two handlings instead of one, and the cost will be materially increased. The railway * and Public Works Department have been somewhat jealous of the trade of this port from first to last; our shipping trade has had to suffer from the senseless competition of a narrow-minded railway management, by which goods were transmitted between Timaru and Lyttelton at a loss ; and now that our Breakwater is about to be applied to a practical purpose, the members of the Harbor Board will do well to hesitate before putting their heads in the lion’s jaws.