INDEBTEDNESS FROM 1900 TO 1913 147 
brokers, likewise, deal with cargoes piecemeal. It would be 
extremely useful to have one or two sample cargoes analysed 
for value by the Australian customs department, the only 
authority in possession of the facts necessary to establish a 
connexion between cargo and freight values. 
The essential difficulty, in working from the Commonwealth 
Statistics relating to trade, is that of translating figures repre- 
senting value into statistics of quantity from which the value 
of an average cargo might be determined and the amount of 
freight payable reckoned. This relationship being established for 
one year, a further complication is presented by the fluctuations 
in freight rates, although it is believed that these do not swing 
quite so widely for the Australian trade as for the world in 
general. Still another difficulty, especially in utilizing the figures 
for shipping tonnage inwards for all ports, is the variation 
between arrival in ballast and arrival fully loaded. 
The ‘method devised by Viner when faced by the similar 
Canadian problem was, of course, applicable ; but there was an 
advantage to be gained by choosing another method of esti- 
mating freight charges which would serve as a check upon the 
results obtained by him. .The device finally selected con- 
sisted of taking the analysis of imports into classes made by 
the Commonwealth Statistician, and loading for a normal year 
a sample cargo representative of all lines imported in a typical 
ship of 15,000 tons displacement loaded to three-fifths of 
capacity. Working on this classification for the years 1901, 
1904, 1906, and 1908, an average cargo consisting of 127 units 
of textiles, 94 units of metals and metal manufactures, 30 of 
animal and vegetable foodstuffs, and so on down the list, was 
obtained. For a normal cargo composed in this way it was 
calculated that the value at prices prevailing in 1908 was approxi- 
mately £230,000, upon which the freight payable at 1908 rates 
would amount to about £15,000. In other words, the freight 
charged upon this representative cargo amounted to approxi- 
mately 6 per cent. of the value of the cargo. 
But in order to arrive at the net freight charge paid upon 
Australian imports it was, further, necessary to make allowance 
for various disbursements by the shipping companies represented 
by port dues, wages, wharfage, &c. in Australian ports. On this 
point C. K. Hobson calculated that 30 per cent. of the gross