FREIGHT ON PRODUCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 645, 23 April 1929, Page 10

FREIGHT ON PRODUCE

TALK OF FLAT RATE FROM ALL PORTS VIEWS OF PRODUCERS (Front Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Friday. Preparatory to the renewal of the freight contracts of the Meat Producers Board and Dairy Produce Control Board with the overseas shipping lines, which lapse in August of next year, a group of primary producers is considering the question of the flat rate of freight. Shortly there will be brought before the Control Boards the views of these producers, and it is probable that some proposals will bo made for a rate from main ports lower than that charged from smaller and roadstead ports. This feeling that shipment should bo more centralised to permit quicker dispatch, and more complete organisation of production, with possible lessening of costs of shipment, is growing. On the other hand, the shipping companies do not seem to consider that the gain will be as great as is anticipated by the producers concerned. “The shipping companies ore naturally prepared to quote the Control Boards for whatever shipment is desired," said the manager of one of the biggest Xew Zealand shipping companies to-day. “If the boards are to'bring the produce to main ports, the shipping companies will naturally quote a rate from main ports. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the flat rate of i. freight has done a great deal to deI velop the agricultural areas of the i country. If farmers had been forced I to wait until there was a coastal ser- | vice capable of handling their produce, they would not have been able to farm on anything like present-day ! scale in many parts of the Dominion. * The knowledge that this means oi transport was avlTtlable helped them ’ to take up land, and the flat rate is still a factor in the country’s development. “There is another aspect of the case, i We carry produce from New Zealand to Halifax. Hull. London, or Antwerp, j at a flat rate. If we are to alter our : practice as between Gisborne and ! Wellington, or Wanganui and Lytteli ton, we should alter it as between Hali- | fax and London.’ j