The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1918. A SHIPPING BOMB.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 October 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1918. A SHIPPING BOMB.

(With whica is Incorporated The T&ihapo Post and Walnrartao News)..

Mr. James Findlay, chairman of the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee has said in Ms soul “All men are liars;” of course, excepting shipowners. All the Availing, fuss and pother about exploitation and huge profits was, if Mr. Findlay can make people believo what he says is true, based upon an altogether erroneous notion; therefore, all the stories printed in every British and American newspaper about profiteering shipping rates being the cause of increased- prices of imported and exported necessaries are nothing but a fabrication of lies, pure and simple. If we were inclined to accept Mr Findlay’s statement we should be encompassed by mountains of insurmountable difficulties such as we could not possibly synchronise Avith the annual sfatehients of accounts issued by shipping companies, some of which have shown a doubling of capital with one year’s net earnings, and the British-speaking world would neverTorgive Mr. Findlay and his shipowners for holding their peace while merchants placed the blame upon them for putting up prices of commodities by three and four hundred per cent. Mr. Findlay, on behalf of overseas shipowners, said to the Farmers’ Union Conference: —

“The fact is the Imperial Government has requisitioned all steamers tradirig to Australia and New Zealand, 'paying the'" shipowners bluehook rates (about one-fOurth of what was prior to the Imperial requisition the current rate for chartering tramp steamers), freights were not | fixed by the shipowners, but by the Government, Mr. Findlay then suggested that if the Conference doubted this, it could. verify his statement by cabling to the High Commissioner.” Sir James Wilson, president of the Farmers’ Conference, seemed prepared to accept Mr. Findlay’s statement, hut the Conference, nevertheless, determined upon putting a few very clear, unambiguous questions to the High Commissioner by cable, and in due course the reply came as follows: “The shipping companies receive hire in respect to their vessels at blue-hook rates. They operate the vessels on the Imperial Government’s account, the latter being credited with the earnings and debited with all the charterers’ disbursements, including the management and agency charges. The Ministry of Shipping does not anticipate the present scale of freights and passage money will dp more than meei the cost ,of the The current rate of freight on wool is per lb. meat and butter £7 10s for 40 cubic feet ship’s space, general cargo £6 10s weight measurement. Ship’s option rates were fixed' by the companies in October, 1916: Wool 2fd per lb., butter 3s 9d box, cheese gc per lb., general cargo £5 5s to £lO per ton. Explanatory letter will follow by mail.—Mackenzie.” It will be seen that Mr. Mackenzie’s reply furnishes the camouflage that the farmers tried In their questions to avoid. No doubt Sir Thomas studiously avoided doing shipping companies 4 an injustice, but in doing so he has transformed the whole proceeding into a little bit of comic opera; simple questions were asked that were capable of being simply and understandably replied to, but the exploited public were not t 6 be allowed to know too much, and a reply was sent that savours of the methods of diamond-cut-diamond financiers. We seem to »» safe, however, in discussing the answer to Mr. Findlay’s statement that the Imperial Government requisitioned shiping at one-fourth the current rates charged prior to the requisition. It would be the height of absurdity to assume that pre-requisition rates amounted to four times those now being paid which are: Wool per pound, meat and butter £ 7 10s per 40 cubic feet, general cargo £6 10s per ton weight or measurement, because producers in New Zealand were certainly not being charged 9d per pound freight on wocil, nor £3O per ton on butter and meat. Dn the other hand there is extreme probability that general cargo, both forward and outward, was charged four times the requisition figures, as that would just about represent the sum newspaper offices are told the freight on newspaper now Is despite the requisition. Sir Thomas

! Mackenzie’s - reply to ' the statement that the Goeyrnment requisition. wa» only one-fourth the pre-requisition current fates certainly leaves a chasm for Mr. Findlay to fill up with his explanations. Both Mr. Findlay and the High Commissioner agree upon tne shipowners being merely agents for the Imperial Government, having to account for all moneys received and disbursed, including management ana agency charges. Why does Sir Thomas specially mention management an» agency charges? Are these an expenditure that has to be added to the xeflage the whole question so effectually with them? If it was not convenient or advisable to give straightforward answers to questions the farmers m conference asked it would have been far more politic to have deferred them so that any explanations allegedly necessary might have accompanied them. Mr. Findlay casts the charge of profiteering on to the shoulders of the Imperial Government and Sir Thomas Mackenzie states the requisition rates only just meet the actual expenditure. If Mr. Findlay will, in his explanations, which seem necessary to give some excuse for his amazing statements, let producers and people into the secret as to how shipping companies have, during the Avar, been able to make profits unprecedented in the history of commerce; to make profits in one year equalling the whole capital in some companies; to make protfis that enabled 'them and warranted them buying up all available bottoms at three or four times tbeir values in normal times, and to continue this buying up in spite or having earnings cut down to onefourth of what they were prior to the requisition we shall understand him better. We New Zealanders are a credulous, easily-gulled people, with no intelligences to consult, but Mr. Findlay overdoes the confidence game; overtaxes the people’s powers of assimilation of such facts as he has to offer. The High Commissioner has not helped much in discovering the true nature of the partnership entered into between shipping owners and the Imperial Government sufficiently for us to understand who it is that is making the cost of living question a howling scandal. We cannot believe that the Imperial Government, while taking pur men to fight the Empire’s common enemy ■is pursuing «, profiteering course that is ‘penalising the men’s dependents;; we. therefor, are of opinion that the people are entitled, not only to the High Commissioner’s promised explanations, hut also to much elucidating evidence from Mr. Findlay, Chairman of the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee.