COMMERCE IN MAIZE GRAIN 60 1 



maize should be shipped at the rate of 10s. per ton of 2,240 CHAP, 

 lbs., to Southampton, London, Hamburg, and Antwerp. 

 Later this was raised, on account of extra cost clue to sorting 

 grades, etc., to lis. 6d. plus 10 per cent primage. 1 This rate 

 includes the charge for sorting at port of destination. To 

 Canadian ports the freight is 12s. 6d. per ton, inclusive of 

 primage, by steamers of the Elder-Dempster Line. 



Where the shipment is made through Government, the 

 charge, including shipping and harbour charges, preparation of 

 shipping documents, Customs entries, and stamps, is 12s. 6d. 

 per ton. 



556. Shipping. — South African grain takes about twenty- 

 eight days to land in Europe, which is the same time as taken 

 by the voyage from Buenos Aires, so that, as far as time is 

 concerned, bulk shipments could be made as successfully in the 

 one case as in the other. The case of Australia and the Pacific 

 Coast of North America is different, the voyage occupying 

 about sixty days. The Pacific Coast shipping companies ob- 

 ject to carrying bulk grain round Cape Horn, on the ground 

 that there is danger of the cargo shifting ; the vessels used in 

 this trade (unlike those employed in the Atlantic grain trade) 

 are not constructed for carrying grain in bulk. The question 

 between shipment in bulk or in bags has been a matter of 

 controversy on the Pacific Coast for many years (Downie, r ) ; 

 a correspondent writes that there is often a good deal of 

 complaint made in Europe against Californian cargoes, solely 

 because they are shipped in bags. 



Hamburg merchants have expressed the opinion that 

 full cargoes of South African grain shipped in bulk should 

 secure steamship freight at less than lis. 6d. per ton. As 

 against this, information was given by competent London 

 authorities that the reason (more or less) why low freights 

 were secured for grain from Argentina to Great Britain and 

 the Continent was due to the fact that the " tramp " steamers 

 obtained outward as well as homeward loads, and that if they 

 failed to get any better paying cargo for the Argentine they 

 could fill up with coal, whereas with South Africa, under the 

 existing conditions, the " tramp " steamers would have to go 



1 In September, 1910, it was stated that the lowest charters obtainable out- 

 side the Conference Lines ranged from 14s. to 20s. per ton. 



