PROTECTION V. FREE TRADE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 23 October 1901, Page 4

PROTECTION V. FREE TRADE.

How it affects Shipbuilding

The following ship statistics are published as showing the comparative progress made under various treatments of the shipping interests: GROWTH OF BRITISH SHIPPING. Gross Tonnage. 1830 2,199,959 1840 ... ... 2,768,252 1849 Repeal of Navigation Laws 1850 3,656,133 1860 ’ ... 4,658,687 1870 5,690,789 1880 6,574,513 1890 ... 9,425,183 1900 13,241,446

POPULATION OF UNITED KINGDOM. IS 51 27,724,000 * 1891 38,104,000 Tho population had increased 37.4 per cent, while the increase of shipping was 164 per cent, or nearly five times as great as that of the population. THE UNITED STATES. 'With a population of 70 millions, a seaboard enormously g' cater titan ttrat of tho United Kingdom—a seaboard, too, studded with excellent ports and harbors, an unlimited supply of coal and iron, the shipping of the United States had declined. SHIPPING OF THE UNITED STATES. Gross Tonnage. 1860 5,353,803 1900 5,164,839 The causes of this great decline were to bo found in the navigation laws and tho protective system. The Americans could not build iron ships themselves, and they would not permit the registration as American of ships built abroad. Hence her foreign trade is carried on ehielly in foreign ships. OEEMAN EETUENS. Germany affords no more encouragement. Her total in 1900 was 2,650,033 ton-s and her population was 56,343,000. With, a very much larger population than the Unite! Kingdom, her shipping is not as large as Britain’s was in 1840-nine years before the navigation laws were repealed,

FRENCH STATISTICS. Prance is no better. Of her total foreign trade in 1899, 12,811,684 tons were carried in foreign vessels, and only 5,169/119 tons in vessels owned m m country. Prance is actually dependent on foreigners for the carrying on ot more than two-thirds of her external trade.