THE NEW SHIPPING CONTRACT.

Shannon News, 18 November 1924, Page 4

THE NEW SHIPPING CONTRACT.

AN EXPERT'S CRITICISM, Speaking to,the New Zealand rep--1 resentative of one of the 'largest; 1 Tooley Street Houses, "Rusfcicus" a&ked for his opinion as-to the new shipping contract; : entered into by the. Dairy Control Board. "In the absence of fuller particulars it is of course impossible to,express a definite opinion on the merits or otherwise of the new contract" s,aid this gentleman. "The reduction in freight is certainly due and most welcome. Whether it was wise to bind the industry to three years in a question that only the future.can solve. Three years is a long time nowadays and many things may happen during such a period. , Three years i s also a.long! time to put up with a service should; it prove unsatisfactory." In .the opinion of this gentleman, too , ,much importance is attached to a'* fractional reduction in freight-rates when compared with the importance; of a regular freightservice. To be able to point to a direct saving* of so many thousand pounds a year on account of reduced rates | has of course a very spectacular effect and is quite praiseworthy, but ,?ays our "critic, many more may be lost through ( an unsuitable and/ irregular service. The shipping up to the present cannot be considered satisfactory and in fact it was not as good as previous j years. The six thousand tons of butter in New Zeaand porta on the Ist of November shoud have arrived Home'for the Xmas trade. Judging by the allotments made by the Board up to the present it certainly does not appear a 3 df any serious attempt is being made! to prevent the throwing of huge quantities of dairy produce on the London market, a practice which proved so harmful during the last few years. Not less than 9000 tons of butter is being shipped from New Zealand during the latter part of this month, the whole of which will arrive during the first two weeks in January" continued our informant. -'

Asked as to his opinion regarding making shipments by the smaller ports such as Patea, Wanganui, etc. this gentleman said "although one naturally sympathises with the endeavours made by these ports, one could inot help .... thinking that it was a great pity that their small local interests should be allowed to stand' in the way of a large national shipping'scheme. He maintained that no regular shipping service could be.devised until the loading was restricted

to themain ports of the Dominion. He recognised, however, that to accomplish this, lay not entirely in the hands of the Dairy Control Board, but co-operation with the Meat Control Board was necessary in. order to succeed in this direction. The time will no doubt come sooner or later, when we will land a boat-load 01 New Zealand butter and eheese in London every Monday -. morning, and every step taken, should.-have thtf ibjective in, view.