lo Mar.. 1911-] Manchester : A Market for Australian Produce. 167 



fore obvious that a ready market would be found for a large quantity 

 •of Australian meat yielding a greatly enhanced return to the producer, 

 if the unnecessary handling and expense of transit were eliminated. 



It may be submitted that the Manchester people themselves should 

 endeavour to secure direct Australian trade, but we should remember that 

 they are the purchasers in this case. The Australian producers are the 

 sellers, and the seller usually arranges that no obstacle to his trade will 

 long remain unremoved. 



Butter, Wool, Wheat, etc. 



There are, I believe, complaints with respect to the handling of Victorian 

 butter in London, and it is evident that if the butter from Victoria which 

 is con.sumed in Lancashire and Yorkshire were sent direct, such difficulties 

 would not. exist. This produce at the present time reaches ^Lanchester 

 by rail, and a direct supply would mean that the dairy produce would be 

 placed, at the lowest cost and with the least possible handling, into 

 probably the largest centre of butter consumers in England. Regular ship- 

 ments would make Victorian butter familiar just as Danish butter, whicii 

 holds the market at present, is familiar and popular. The Danish exporters 

 thoroughly study and cater for the market and the excellent result of their 

 efforts is obvious to any one who has investigated the circumstances. There 

 would be a saving in time, and 25s. per ton in rail charges, if this produce 

 were consigned direct from Melbourne, and in addition tO' these advantages 

 to the direct exporter his produce would reach the market in a much more 

 satisfactory condition. 



Further, if might be mentioned that butter may be .sent from Manchester 

 to Bolton at 21s. yd. per ton less than from London; to Leeds at 30s. yd. 

 per ton le.ss ; and to Oldham at 19s. 6d. per ton le.ss. These are only a 

 few instances, but they indicate the general saving in railway freight. 



I have referred to the three chief perishable exports, viz. : meat, butter, 

 and fruit, but the Western market is plainly attractive to exporters of wool, 

 grain, tinned meats, tallow, rabbits and indeed all the exportable 

 merchandise that Victoria can produce. 



At the docks there are spacious wool -sheds, with ample floors, specially 

 adapted for the sorting of the bales of wool into different marks and 

 numbers. Tlie wool may then be immediately loaded into railway waggons 

 for Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds and other Yorkshire manufacturing 

 centres. Wool bought at the Australian sales and consigned direct to Brad- 

 ford, can be .sent from steamers discharging at ^Lu^chester at a lower cost 

 than from either London or Liverpool. 



The great grain elevator at the docks is said to be one of the most 

 up-to-date in the Kingdom for rapid discharging from steamers, storage 

 and loading into waggons for distant towns, or carts for local delivery. 

 Cargoes of grain come regularly from most other ])arts of the world to 

 Manchester, which is .some evidence of the excellent facilities for distribu- 

 tion. But I was informed that grain shippers in Australia often — for 

 what rea.son I was unable to di.scover — accept sailing-shii) charter parties 

 ■ containing such clauses as: " Manchester Ship Canal excluded." I l>elieve 

 it was agr«T(| bv the Chambers of Commerce of the Commonwealth and 

 the Sailing Shif) Owners Documentary Committee in London, that the new 

 Charter Party of 1908 should lie used. This dcuument has the clause 

 relative to Manchester thus: '' I-'.xchiiling Manchester Ship Canal alcove 

 Runcorn lUidge."' which ailniits of the sailing vessel being f)rdered to 

 Runcorn on the Ship Canal, w bene*' grain may lie l)arged to the elevator. 

 When the clau.se excluding Manchester altogether is inserted, the exporter 



