South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2648, 15 September 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1881.

We are extremely pleased to find that the question" of subsidising a direct steam service with Great, Britain has been temporarily shelved’by the : House’ of ilepfesentatives ; for' had commendations of the Committee appointed to report on the question been adopted, the colony would have been committed to an annual payment far in excess, of the.value. jof.ib.fi.benefits .to be derived from such a service. Mo one can question that great advantage would accrue to the colony if a line of first-class steamers were' regularly running between it and Great Britain; but that the advantage would be equivalent to an annual subsidy of £GO,OOO one can and must question. One of the chief arguments used in favor of the scheme is that only steamships of the first class will prove suitable for carrying Home frozen meat, and that a regular line of such steamers must be established before a trade in that commodity can be set on foot, or at any rate be assured of success. But what could such a trade amount to ? It could not for many years acquire such proportions that the gain it would bring to the colony would go far towards counterbalancing so heavy a subsidy as that proposed by the Parliamentary Committee, or even half of it; or even the lessor sum of £25,000 which the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce think would be sufficient to induce owners of suitable steamships to place them in the New Zealand trade. It is high time the people of Now Zealand began to manage their own business directly, to trust to their own energy and the prospects of commercial success offered by their schemes, without‘looking for the whole colony to share, in the ventures, as seeking the aid of Government necessarily implies that they do. If there is a prospect of the meat trade becoming a financial success if instituted, lot those who as business men see such prospect embark, and persuade as they can their neighbors to embark in it, as a business speculation, without requiring the whole people to share the expense and risk, when they could not possibly share in any profits made,with equal certainty or in just proportions. The frozen meat trade certainly presents somewhat unusual difficulties. It will not do to prepare a shipment unless a steamer wore certain to be bo available for its immediate transport; the meat would not keep or .could only be kept waiting at a considerable expense. On the other hand a shipment must be ready ®heu a steamer appeared to take it, as her detention would equally mean additional expense. The conditions are not quite so simple as in the case of the export of wheat, wool, or of any other of our staple products, but they arc none of them really adverse conditions. If it will really pay to ship meat Home, it must be understood that the expense of getting steamers to carry it is a fair charge to bo made against the returns ; so far as the trade itself is concerned it cannot be considered a fair charge against the returns of other trades, as it would be made if the colony as a whole were to become responsible for it. Let this business boar its own responsibilities ; if it cannot do that, better give up all thought of entering upon it until it can. We believe it can do so, and that it presents so good a chance of success that public assistance would only prove detrimental to it. If the people at large, through the Government, undertake to subsidise a line of steamers, however strongly the intention of fostering the frozen meat trade may be insisted upon, there is an enormous risk that other interests will be strong enough, in seeking their own advancement, to impose restrictions, as to dates of sailing and ports of call for instance, that would seriously impede the progress of the industry whose interests the line was particularly intended to serve. If the export of meat is to attain any large proportions it would appear necessary that the vessels engaged in it be at perfect liberty to go to any port where the provisions could be prepared on an extensive scale ; to make such stay at each one as might be necessary to take in the whole cargo provided, and then without loss of time to proceed to the next port where her peculiar cargo could be got. Any programme of this kind would scarcely suit the public of Now Zealand. If a direct steam service with the Old Country were subsidised by the colony, the ports of call must be fixed by Parliament, and there would be the same struggles for provincial supremacy over this question that occur in other cases. The ports of call and order of calling would very likely be so arranged as to defeat the chief ends aimed at by the promoters of the direct service scheme. We thoroughly believe that an extensive trade in frozen meat and provisions of all kinds might be built up between this colony and Great Britain, but we believe also that it would be to the advantage of the trade in the long run to be entirely independent of extraneous aid. We observe that the Dunedin people and the Christchurch people seem severally to suppose that the frozen meat trade must he carried on at their particular centres only. They seem to suppose so because in their calculation as to the amount of meat available for export only the local supply is taken into account. There is no reason, however, that we are aware of, why the North Island should not contribute a share to tlm ( AyKr'i-, q one or more points un the coast ; indeed, we have been informed on good authority that certain districts of the North Island | ■ vj. ; ;s advantages and facilities for fattening stock equal if not superior to those of this Island,

in':the, ipiceßiifc BHibpess is/tbatiiarge ; 'Bteatnerß ; •are apparently required;:mspjfaer-shat.-'a cer&iu : =ibinminra? of speed-' maj? bo obtained/and if possible exceeded? the difficulty lies in this/'that’ "the 1 quantity of cargo of the kind contemplated which could be provided for shipment at short, intervale, would,be insufficient’ to make a full loadj while it would not pay to send Home other kinds of produce by the same expensive method. i7his obstacle could only be attacked with any degree of success by establishing freezing stations at various ports along- the coast, where the steamers could'call and collect as large a cargo as possible. The stations might be the property of one company or of several local ones, who might amalgamate for the purpose of procuring vessels. If this would not answer ; if no other means of obviating the difficulty can be devised ; if small steamers or sailing- vessels cannot, by some modification of the process of preservation, be made to answer the purpose, the obvious conclusion, from a business point of view, is that the opening of this trade must be postponed for a while. There are plenty of fields available for the profit-, able use of capital, which do not require in their opening up the assistance of the whole body of ratepayers —those who can participate in the profits, and those who cannot—and these fields should all be occupied before that assistance is called in to open up others. By that time it would probably be found that such assistance was unnecessary in any case.

The objections which can be urged against paying an annual subsidy for a line of steamers in order indirectly to foster the meat export trade, may not apply to the offering of a bonus to directly assist the trade, and it would probably be worth while for the colony, to offer a really substantial bonus to encourage the initiators of an industry which must prove of great value to the districts in which it is carried on, leaving the managers of the business to make their own arrangements for the transport of their goods. This would be a very different thing from undertaking to pay a subsidy for the running of steamers, for if the engagement were entered into, the subsidy must be paid-whether the export of meat was carried on through, them or not.