SHIPMENT OF MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1922, Page 2

SHIPMENT OF MEAT.

CONDITIONS AT. LONDON. MULTIPLICITY OF MARKS. London, Jan. 20. If the proposed meat pool is to remedy the evil of collecting cargo for the same ship at widely separated ports, and do away with the multiplicity of marks, the shipping companies will welcome its inauguration. One of th? most striking examples of multiplicity of marks is supplied by the s.s. Tainui at present unloading. This vessel brought

9165 quarters of beef, split up under 703 different marks, thus making an average of 13 pieces per mark. One bill of lading covering 276 pieces, had 48 different marks; another covering 268 had 52 marks; and, still worse, a third, covering 248 pieces, had 73 marks. This is surely a record, and when it is considered that probably not one farmer got the slightest extra benefit from having his produce specially branded the waste of time and laboj’ is obvious. As the Imperial Shipping Committee conducted its inquiry under the auspices of the Board of Trade, the Board has addressed the shipping companies drawing their attention especially to paragraph 17 of the report, which sets out the conditions in regard to loading and unloading, and i multiplicity of marks, and suggests that shipping companies and the shippers might advantageously co-operate. “The Board of Trade,” the letter concludes, “desires me to ask whether you have any observations to make in regard to the possibilities of effecting such economies in connection with the shipment and discharge of meat cargoes-as are indicated in paragraph 17.” The writer of the letter explains that the object of the Board of Trade in addressing the companies is to give any assistance that it may find possible to ameliorate conditions at this end.

Not a great deal of improvement is evident in the matter of meat storage in London. Vessels are still being held up owing to the lack of accommodation for frozen meat. On the other hand, there is a better clearance direct to Smithfield for desirable quality. Consignees, how- . ever, continue to show reluctance in [taking up documents, with the result ! that butter and cheese stored below the meat cargoes are held up, to the intense l annoyance of Tooley Street merchants. There is a story current that a certain importer of New Zealand meat, rather than have his produce sent to an out-of-the-way store which the shipping company in question had found, took his consignment into barges where it has remained for the past ten days. ForI tunately, the temperature recently has not been much above freezing point, otherwise someone would lose.