STATE SHIPPING.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 2

STATE SHIPPING.

. AND HIGH FREIGHTS, MR. R. MASTER’S M.P., ON CO- . OPERATIVE SYSTEM. Reference to the question of high shipping freights was made by Mr. R. Masters, M.P. for Stratford,., in the course of his speech in the AcJdress-in-Reply debate, and the hon. member suggested State ships -'as a solution of the difficulty. “We fully realise (lie said), and I think the Prime Minister realises, that the freights that are charged ,on our produce at the present time are altogether too high,, and we are being charged, an unfair amount. In spite of the reduction in value of our primary products _the charges, in the.way of freights are going up very considerably, .and I want to know , what the Governrpent is going to do in the direction of giving assistance to the farmers, or co-operating with them in securing reduced rates so far aS their primary products are concerned. . . . Taking the exports on the basis of 1913 these increased rates mean that the primary products of this Dominion are paying to the shipping companies the immense amount of £5,143,202 more in freights per annum than they paid on the same quantity in 1913. Those figures refer only to the exports that go to the United Kingdom. They do not refer to the exports of the whole Dominion. Take, for instance, the proportion that goes to the United Kingdom. Only ' 50 per cent of the preserved meats go to the United Kingdom ; of hemp and tallow, 75 per cent ; of hides and pelts, 70 per cent. S<f ydu will see readily that the figures I have quoted are quite with, in that mark. "CALLING FOR ACTION.” For some very considerable time the farmers of New Zealand have beijn giving this'matter very grave consideration indeed, and I believe that the Government has been giving it grave consideration ; but grave consideration alone is not to satisfy this country. It is calling for action. Something has got to be done, or it will be a very* 1 serious thing to jnore than, the primary producers of this country, because the raleof freight has increased. in the same, if not greater, ratio on our imports as on oui 1 exports, and it is affecting those who are purchasers as well as those who are exporters. At the present tiriie we hear from all parts of the world about tlje glut £here is in- freight.. For instance-, I have a cable here which says :* Tn view of the depression in the shipping trade the Scandinavian owners are reported to have decided to lay up indefinitely 400,900 toils now lying idle at Tyneside. Contracts for new ships- have been cancelled at heavy sacrifice.’ AUSTRALIA'S EXAMPLE. “From Sydney it is stated :—‘A review of the year's shipping discloses that a shortage of tonnage has been concerted into a. glut. Shipowners are begging shippers for cargoes instead of the latter seeking Bpape,’ “Instead of a fall in freights, so far as New Zealand is concerned, we have an increase, and I am inclined to think that the fall, so far as Auctxalian freights to Great Britain are concerned has been brought about largely afc a result of the Commonwealth Government building ships and setting the standard of freight and competing with shipowners from outside. The same thing applies to freights on the Atlantic by American companies. The American ships are not getting anything like the rate of freight, they were previously. While I am not a believer altogether in State control so far as shipping is concerned, I think it should be the policy of the Government to join hands with the producers and the importers of this Dominion in forming a co-operative system of some kind or othei. . . . It seems to me there is no reasonable argument against the Government entering into the shipping business as well as entering into the railway business. I thing we should have that link from our harbours right up to the point where we distribute our produce.”.