FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XXIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2161, 15 May 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XXIV.

This letter I am allotting to companies. It may be asked what companies. Mr friends, have I not been writing of foreign trade ? And I am now to write about the companies who conduct the foreign bn*ines* matters of our farmers, or consignment companies, % &c. In doing this might I not use the key note monopoly. For these consignment!) shipping and freezing companies are essentially monopolies, and of the worst type, and I doubt, even with all their supposed talented business management they do not stop at that demarcation which even the strictest monopoly cannot overstep without loss and, if persisted in, ruin. I mean that line having a fixed price short of what prodncers cannot or will not pay. Let it be quite understood, when I say producer* cannot pay, I mean that when his mutton is sold in London for 4d per lb., and the charges are 3£d per lb., he has only a £d left for himself, or he pays 3d per lb. of the charges, and the consumer pays £d per lb. If the mutton sold for 6d per lb., then all the charges are rightly paid by the consumer in addition to a profit for the producer, For an illustration about the line of demarcation, I take the freight upon frozen mutton shipped to England. From the •hipping company's point of view, this line will be l£d per lb. with 10 per cent, primage. So they fix the rate at l£d per lb., and 10 per cent, primage, but this rate is not being paid by consumers, bat by producers out of capital invested, or, in other words, those engaged in sending mutton away are losing capital instead of gaining a profit. From a farmer's point point of view, the demarcation line should be placed at Id per lb with, a 5 per cent, primage, the actual freight to be Id per lb nett. We have some very extensive loan, mortgage, financial, mercantile and consignment companies in i this colony, acting as asrents in the consignment of agricultural produce. We have also to deal with storage companies. Most of our farmers will have account sales of different kinds of produce, which hare been consigned to England on their behalf by these companies; they are usually very clear statement* of the several , items of expenses. I have before me now three account ■ales of wool for the year* 80, 82 and '85, and the total charges in each case (including everything from delivery on railway trucks in this country to being •old in the London market) amounted to 17 per cent, in 1880, IS percent, in 1882, and 22 per cent, in ISSS of the total sum realised for the woo. Or a steady increased percentage charge from comparatively good times to one of the greatest depressions in trade ever known. According to the papers before me, wool realised in 80, IOJd per lb ; in 82, 8d per lb ; in 85, 6£d per lb ;or 5 per cent, more is charged in 85 than in 80, whilst the value of wool has decreased by 4d per lb, or about 38 per cent, during the same time. A very pleasant thing to contemplate, that while the prices of produce are falling, the bxporting- charges are as uteadily rising. This rise of course is caused by the fixed charges, principally in railway and shipping- freights, and warehouse costs in London. The charge* which we are especially going to survey in this letter are carting, weighing and shipping, warehtuse charges, commission and brokerage. We will not trouble muoh about the three first items, an they are light, except the shipping. What is included under this head I know not, for the primage of 10 per cent, upon the freight is supposed to oover the expenses of getting the goods stowed on board and discharged, and is amply sufficient. The warehouse charges in London are heavy, namely. 4-3 per bale, with expenses of re-lotting and rent, amounting to 7s per bale. Pretty little charges ! The latest company is one formed for the purpose of developing our frozen produce trade. Special arrangements are made for the sale aud storage of frozen mutton and beef, the sales to be by retail, and of course special charges will exist in this, as in all other cases, to the injury of producer, and the curtailment of tradeAgain, to come nearer home, we are blessed with anothor sort of storage company, who also conduct the freezing of our meat. Instead of storing and exporting, or supplying the Home market on behalf of farmers, they want to buy direct and sell on their own account, and so gain all the profit there is to be reaped. Ut Prosim.