SHIPPING INTEREST.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1924, Page 4

SHIPPING INTEREST.

A DISMAL PROSPECT. IU ST KALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. LONDON, January o. AVhile an optimistic feeling for 1924 prevails in respect to many trades, there is one industry about which all prophet* are Jeremiahs. This is shipping. Tll their annual report on Steam Shipping. Augier and Co., write: “■Whatever faint hopes were cherished that 192.‘i would show the turn of the tide, and that business would improve, wore ( eaeiieaijy extinguished when, in January, the French found it necessary to occupy the Ruhr district Tin nigh the cessation of work in Germeic coal mines led to a certain •imouiD of extra employment for tonnage conveying British and American civil to the Continent, (lie net result upon the trade of the world was deplorable and, genernlly speaking, freights have never been lower than in 1929 “The merchant fleets owned by various Governments, have, of course, been affected oven mere severely than those of private owners and it has been computed that losses 011 running to the laspyyiTs of the United States. Canada mid Australia. amount to about £”8,001),000 during the past two years, apart from capital Bouses 'of about £‘000.000.000, while the results of the French, Italian, and .Portuguese have apparently been proportionately heavy. “The one nation whose mercantile marine ha- nourished i.s Germany, w hose shipowners were- assisted by their Government to icpkue .steamers lost doling the war, and who are rapidly regaining the place they previously held. Freights paid in sterling, dollars and other fairly stable currencies, and home expenses payable in. marks, hardworking and expert ships companies, and a real bent for ship management must inevitably make themselves fell, ami the compel il ion of German lines, cspeiially is already a serious factor.”