SHIPOWNERS' PROFITS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3006, 17 February 1917, Page 8

SHIPOWNERS' PROFITS

STATEMENT BY THE OWNERS' FEDERATION.

Tlie following statement made by the chairman of the "Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Shipowners' Federation. with regard to shipowners' profits in connection with the exemption of seamen from military service lias been, forwarded to us by Mr. William Pryor, secretary of the Federation:— ■ "Strong exception has been taken by local shipowners to the question re profits of shipowners addressed by captain Baldwin- to the secretary of the Seamen's Union in connection with his appeals for exemption of seamen from military service. In the first place the secretary of the Seamen's TJnion is not in a position to know : -whether the owners are making profits-or-not. It is becoming the custom to . lump all shipowners together as -a- olass which is making exorbitant profits due to the war conditions. That some, shipowners, mostly neutral, who have been trading particularly in tlie war zone, may be making large profits, is no doubt true: but as regards the boats running on the -New Zealand coast, and especially the smaller class of boats of this federation, the conditions' are worse than before the war. Shipowners/' have been faced with large increases' of wages, which have, been' paid to. every class of employee—captains, officers, engineers, sailors, firemen, stewards, and watersido workers. There have also been many abnormal delays owing to the shortage of labour, which mean a loss to the ship's earning power, and the trade has been slacker than before tlie war as nothing in the way of building contracts or public "works is being carried on. . There have been substantial increases in cost of blinker coal. State coal has gone up 33 per cent., representing an additional £350 per annum in the cost of running small vessels. Ibere have also "been "heavy increases m the cost of stores and victualling. • To meet all these, there has been only one rise in freights" 011 the coast since the-war, and this only an amount of. Is. 6d. to 2s. Gd. per ton., ..- \s a-matter of fact the small steamer trade out of Wellington is distinctly on tho down grade. One -has only to cast one's memory back to a few years before the war : to realise this. Such vessels as ' the Mang.ipapa., 1 Kairaki, Bed Pine, Jano Douglas, Moa. and Eakiura liaVe been wrecked and have not been replaced. Since, the war, the Stormbird and Squall have been, lost and tlie Arapawa. sold, and no vessels have taken their places.. . Then there are several steamers, such as the Huia, Manaroa, Aorere, and -Mana, which are laid up' owing to- the excessive cost of running. ; The . fact that owners prefer to lay their boats up proves, conclusively that there is no profit in the business. Tho federation takes it that the' question to be decided by the Court is not one of profitable working or otherwise, but simply, as to whether the men are employed in an essential industry.'