The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1919. SHIPPING AND PRICE VAGARIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 31 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1919. SHIPPING AND PRICE VAGARIES.

(With wtuea is incorporated The t «i* h & pe Post and Walcmilao Newa).

The rapid and heavy falls iu shipping freights since cessation of the war are almost as bewildering as the shameful rises That took place during the war. From the huge profits made by shipping owners when, hostilities ceased one.can only guess what they might have reached to under less fortunate war conditions. Users .of a few articles that cannok be produced in this country have been the special victims of shipping rings; they had I: impressed upon them that it was hopeless to expect (anything more moderate, and only a few weeks ago, despite publication of the statement that freights had- been reduced fifty per cent, private sources were advising thax prices would be higher owing to shipping difficulty. It seems'’ that the end of the war has completely upset the campaigns of lying and extortion in which people have been, victimised by the soulless, inhuman exploiting fraternity, for private advices and' cabled news., published arc far from being iu accord. Unfortunately, we have sonic knowledge of the cost in Canada, as well as the shipping freights oh paper, and we are aware that other imported goods That are not produced in Now Zealand, have been similarly affected. Paper wdiich cost less than threepence per pound, free on board in Canada, has for a long time cost scyenpencie a pouhd by the time it reached Taihape, and with’ last advices it must be costing sevenpcnce at the present moment. We know 7 that the price of paper is under threepence free on board, therefore shipping companies,. with their multiplicity of charges, have brought freightage by The ton up to ivhat is charged as postage rates on’ parcels of .a few pounds -weight, and the amazing aspect is that latest private |pdvicies say they are to increase. It seems impossible to synchronise the statements of merchants with those of shipping companies, and this ds extremely regrettable, because it has such a vital bearing on the cost of living problem. From what shipping companies arc publishing people have been gladly anticipating a considerable decrease in the cost of housekeeping, and o£ materials essential to the most profitable prosecution of our industries; reasonably so, because the chief cause of high prices is stated by merchants to be the shortness of supply brought about by shortage of shipping and high rates of freight. We are perplexed to understand/ what is the matter with the shipping question, because -we havo come to experience the fact that although increasing shipping charges arc reflected hugely in prices of imported commodities, they arc not at all sensitive to any lowering of such charges. Commodity values do not appear to fluctate at all, whatever happens regarding freights; they never omit to go up with an exaggerated sympathy, but something is outrageously wrong w 7 ith the mechanism that should bring 'aoout the reverse movement. This, or all ’.he cable messages newspapers are paying for are utterly false, camouflage to permit of some other scheme of profiteering deviltry. First, a twenty-five per cent, reduction on freights and the cancellation of war risks were announced; then another twenty-five per cent reduction -was made, making a decrease of fity per selTc, Despite, this, private advice was diametrically opposed to what shipping people were cabling from Britain at the expense of newspapers: but the shipping enigma will now take a lot of guessing. Recent reports cabled proclaim that there is no shortage of shipping, that there arc, in fact, more ships than arc required for the goods to be shipped, and this statement seems to be borne out in a message which came along yesterday, reporting that Atlantic freights had been reduced by two-thirds; that freights between

Britain and the continent ..of America arc only one-third what they were a few weeks ago. A? this drop of two-thirds does not apply to Australasian freights, shipping companies have established differential charges, which is not at all# surprising as it has been an open secret 'that they were in some way allied to American trusts, and, of course, it is only natural that an opportunity to exploit whatever markets there arc to be exploited should be first rendered available fo their allies. But all this commences To open the ieyes of New Zealanders to the dangers that lurk around preferential trading. The message that announces the two-thirds drop in Atlantic freights also states that shipping companies trading with Now Zealand have decided to make

a considerable reduction in the near

future. We must say that we do not like this by-and-by business; the experience of everyone from infancy is, that by-and-by promises very sieldom attain to impressions' on the mind to which they are made. The law of supply and demand, which eoxmerers of life necessaries have been sickeningly quoting, should operate against a sixty-six per cent drop on Atlantic freights and no apparent reduction at all on New Zealand freights. There is more shipping space available than there arc goods to ship; in other words, there are ships for which there is nothing to do, therefore the old dishonest stunt about shortage of shipping being responsible tor high cost of commodities is not true at the present moment, whatever ’truth there may have been in it in the past. On an article that wo pay twenty-eight pounds for on ship in Canada there are shinning charges amounting to thirty-five pounds, while if with reduction of freight and abandonment of war risks of two-thirds, which have been made in Atlantic freights, we sfiould bo paying only loss than twelve pounds; every such article should cost us forty pounds instead of sixty pounds. Without doubt all other users of imported articles arc in a precisely similar position. If cabled messages represent the facts respecting shipping it is time a move was made by our Government to fully enlighten the people on so perplexing ia. situation. Before any contract with the English Incorporated Society of Importers is considered by producers, they should be absolutely certain of -whaf the conditions the Exporters in New Zealand have agreed to actually involve them in. A differential freight scheme is capable of being made into a terrible scourge for the producers of this country. Although importers here may not. always have to pay a shilling a? against fourpCnce paid by importers in America and Britain, the difference of far loss would pfovie disastrous If inward and outward freights are equalised.. It seems that all old time trading ' honour land honesty has gone with treaties and contrasts on to the scrap-heap, and that traders are extorting as much as they can wherever they- can. In all the vagaries of shipping charges there can be no satisfactory explanation given of the present situation. "Prices remain high because of shipping shortage; there arc more ships than there are goods to carry in them; there is a drop “of sixty-six per cent in ocean freights and war risks have boon taken off.” How can any person understand the price problem from such chaotic verbiagv?