A FREIGHT BOYCOTT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3110, 8 February 1909, Page 5

A FREIGHT BOYCOTT.

AN IMPORTANT SPEECH,

BY MR W. C. BUCHANAN, M,P.

THE "OPEN DOOR" POLICY FOR EXPORT RATES.

ALLEGED COERCION BY SHIPP-

ING COMPANIES

At the meeting of the General Committee of the Masterton A. and P. Association on Saturday, Mr W. C. Buchanan, M.P. for Wairarapa, who attended the meeting as a member of a deputation, after the deputation had concluded its business, brought under the notice of the Committee a matter which Mr Buchanan said he considered was one of extreme importance to the Dominion, and which interested the farming community most directly. He referred to the question of freetrade in the way of freights in connection with the exports of the Dominion. The speaker said he would refer to the freights on wool, and wished he could do so in respect of all other products as well. In 1897 he had travelled hundreds of miles in the North and South Islands in connection with the establishment and work of a freight reduction committee. He had got guarantees from settlers, with a result that thousands of bales of wool had been consigned under the i committee's auspices. The committee had hoped to direct its operations I towards the consignment of meat I and dairy produce as well, but owing to one the largest freezing companies in the South Island failing to join in the proposed arrangements,

nothing doaJd be dons except in respect of wool. However the committee gttVei sufih a " big fright" to ahiJJpiflg companies that the outcome was 8 fe'flifetlon in freights which represent jd per" fib on meat, lis per bale ofl Wdblj and alWajfrout a id per lb on dairy ptodtice:. .'Kite aggregate saving to the' '&Mffi?u l oft 1 #n these items through the &RJtietssft was considerably over a quarter tff a million sterling per year, as it wag easy to calculate the gain to the Dominion on the first year's operations. The committee had been loading sailing vessels year by year since 1897. This year no sailers would be loaded on account of the limited number of such vessels of suitable tonnage available, causing Lloyds to increase the insurance rates granted. The freight reduction committee had therefore to fall back on the steamers, three of which would be despatched by the committee. Mr Buchanan appealed to the settlers to help themselves by helping the committee. p He would tell them as a matter of absolute fact that woolbuyers came to the New Zealand sales from all parts of the world, and some of them had been told that if they shipped by the freight reduction committee's steamers they could expect no accommodation from the shipping companies. In other words, a boycott had been established. The committee was fighting banks and commission agents of all sorts, who were using every effort to. boycott the steamers of the com- j mittee. Speaking as to the respective ' freights. Mi) Btlchflfifin Said that last year the 1 shipping edmpftnles' charges on wool were nine-s'l.Xtgehfihs' of a penny per lb. and ten per cent- priffiage, whereas the freight reduction committee's rate was seven-sixteen-ths of a penny per lb on sailers, and this year it was the same. The difference was about 6s 6d per bale, and this applied to the clip of the Dominion represented in round numbers £140,000. Passing on, the speaker said that the freight reduction committee could do nothing without the assistance of settlers.. who should direct their agents to ship by the committee's vessels, If the committee's operations interfered with the eecurities of the banks for their advances there would be something in the opposition to the committee's work, but this was not the case. The object was to keen an open matter the rate tor freights from the Dominion for the whole of its produce, in other words free trade in freights for all who cared *o convey, according to the law of supply and demand. The speaker personally had no interest in the matter beyond that of every other settler in the country, and that was to get the cheapest rate of freight obtainable. If the coercive measures of the shipping companies were going to succeed they would soon drift back to the old times of high freights. The committee had been fighting hard since 1897, and it hoped that when the settlers became acquainted with the trend of events they would assist to the utmost in enforcing the open door policy in the matter of freights. Mr Buchanan said he had in his pr ssession, as he spoke, proof of what he had stated regarding the establishment of a boycott. He hoped that before long a representative committee of delegates from this and every other district in the Dominion would unite to assist in the work of the freight reduction committee. He thought there was sufficient determination m settlers to take the right stand in a matter of su 'h onormous importance to them and the Dominion. (Loud aplause).