The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1912. FREIGHTS AND SHIPPING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 54, 28 October 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1912. FREIGHTS AND SHIPPING.

The recently announced increases in freights for wool and hemp are stated to be merely part of a general upward movement in freights all over the world, one reason for this being the urgent need of cargo steamers for carrying the world’s crops to the various great markets. Shipping people, for some years, have not been having a too good a time, but now according to reports from London, rates which are admitted by experienced owners to be extraordinarily high arei being paid, and there is no indication of any falling off in activity. It is said, indeed, there has never before been a time when freights were so uniformly good. Higher prices are now being paid to bring maize from Argentina than have ever before been recorded. The cotton shipping season, which opened in September commenced extremely well. Grain was being brought from the Pacific Coast of North America at rates approaching double what were accepted a year ago, and for distant dates India and Australia were taking tonnage on terms admitted to be excellent. Great as was the demand for ordinary cargo steamers, the demand for oil tank vessels was still greater, and as it was impossible for these to be built quickly enough to cope with the demand, some firms were proposing to adapt ordinary cargo vessels to their purpose by fitting the holds of ordinary vessels with a number of cylinders of different sizes, into which the oil could be poured. Whether this can be done in a manner that will comply with the requirements of Lloyd’s Register is, of course, a question. The cargo steamship companies and nof the passenger steamship companies are mainly reaping the benefit of the high freights, though it is pointed out that it is the passenger vessels on whom new regulations entailing more expense, such as the installation of wireless telegraphy plants and the better provision for life-saving in case of shipwreck, will chiefly fall. T t certainly would not be surprising under the circumstances, therefore, to shortly learn that passenger rates hve taking an upward turn also.