Shipping Industry.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1922, Page 4

Shipping Industry.

CONDITIONS DISCUSSED. j WELLINGTON, Aug. 28 ! The shipping industry was discussed j in the Arbitration Court. A witness under examination declared that shipowners were hard 'up against present <lnv conditions, harder up than they over bad been before. They were not , pleading poverty, but they bad to curtail expenses. I The Judge observed that running ex- ' ponses were eating up profits.

Cross-examined bv Mr Young, secretary of the Seamen’s Federation, witness said that shipowners were obliged to reduce costs by every possible means. That was wbv they opposed tlie union’s claims for overtime for certain classes of work.

Mr Young declared that some companies could still afford to pay a dividend of 45 per cent. The Judge: They arc few and far between.

Afr Young said one company had expended £-11,200 last year on repairs to a fleet of little more than 4000 tons. During the previous year it expended under the same bead £43,000. It was quite dear that the expenditure was made largely for the purpose of evading income tax. The same company paid this year a 7 per cent dividend. It could have paid 21 per cent. It still had some £15,000 to come and go on. The Judge: And now that tompany is hit by the slump. Afr Young: So they say. The Judge: You don’t believe it.

Mr Young: No. Mr Smith, representative of the T’nien Steam Ship Con,many, said that during the war years ships had been kept going and had become neglected. That was why it now was necessary to expend so much upon repair work. His Honor: AVe must all realise from what we see of ships laid up in every harbour and from, 'general complaints we hear about the state of industry that tilings are not what they were a few vonrs ago. That, is the aspect of the financial question the witness is sneaking about rather than any question of the company’s financial stability in the ordinary sense. '.Mr Young: We want to analyst- the cause of ships being laid up. It U noteworthy that shortly before these proceedings commenced many slops were laid up, and that more are being laid up at the present moment. I think they will lie all under way as soon as the maritime disputes are disposed of. His Honor pointed out that large numbers of ships wore laid up ni Australia and in the Old Country. \v hole fleets wore idle in England. Mr Young: 1 submit that is no comparison. Britain lost the whole of her trade with, such countries ns Norway and Sweden, and very largely HuUnited States.