WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1929, Page 3

WELLINGTON NEWS

BRITISH SHIPPING

(Special Correspondent).-

GREYMOUTH, July 5. The shipping building industry began the year with more orders in hand than for some considerable time past, The tonnage laid down in British 3 aids was 431,758 tons,/ as .against only 249,000 tons elsewhere/ The proportion of the world’s tonnage now under construction in British yards is 47.5 per cent as compared with 52.7 per cent in the last pre-war year. But the British shipping industry, while it still occupies the premier position in the world will have to face increased rivalry on the part of other countries. | Germany in particular is making strenuous efforts to capture the pas- > senger traffic of the Atlantic; the J building programme of the Noi ddeutclia ( Ll 6, yd provides for two ships, the “ Europa ” and the “ Bremen,” which are intended to outstrip the Cunarder “Mauretania.” The fire which broke out on the “Europa” in March last will doubtless have given this pro ’ gramme some set back; but that wiP be • persisted in and completed will .-hardly be questioned. The displaceriient of the’two German ships is to Be .40,000 tons- that is to say-; 15,000 tons more than the “Mauretania,” and their maximum speed 27 knots, as compared with something under 26 knots of thfe j “Mauretania.”

But German competition does not stand alone; reports are in circulatioh that - both the Campaignie Generate Translantique and the Navigaziorie Geiierale Italians likewise intend to lay down ships with a speed of 27 knots, arid that these are to be used on thfe North Atlantic routes. It should be borne in mind that the centre of gravity will'not be the comparatively few giant liners, but rather freight steamers mihistering to the needs of confmerce. Here, too, competition is likely to he fierce, more especially as .somfe governments pay subsidies to their shipping companies. France, Italy, Spain, Geraiany, and Japan all follow such policy by which the world’s shipping has tended to increase artificially far beyond its economic requirements, 1 with the result that freight rates are mucli too low. ,

Great as are the difficulties of thfe situation at present they are likely tfa be enhanced as the result.of the United States Merchant. Marine Act, 1928', which is designed among other things to encourage ship Building in America h yards. It is a tribute to the inherent strength of British shipping that, despite new building (often encouraged by State subsidies) the British industry lias been able to maintain its foremost position among the shipping industries of . the- world. , , :

UNEMPLOYMENT. : r . 7. ..,7, .... ...... .. j . ; ; The debate in the House last week on the Imprest Supply Bill gave the Socialist members a chance at publicity so as to keep on side with the if constituents, but they contributed nothing towards the solution of unemployment which was the main topic. Their view, which is shared by many others, is that the Government should provide work at Arbitration Court award wages. The Government is doing a good deal td 'provide work, but it is with borrowed mdriey. /

In this connection there may be reproduced a quotation which Mr Winston Churchill made when, in the course of his last Budget statement', he Was criticising the Liberal proposal to spend a loan of £200,000,000 on road construction, That expenditure, he said, would not only be. of ifo real or lasting advantage as a remedy for unemployment, but would be positively' And grayely injurious to public Welfare. An almost similar mistake, he said, was made 80 or 90 years ago, in the frenzied enthusiasm with which' the railways were promoted,'

In the railway construction boom round, about 1845 groat loans were raised'for the rapid building of railways, arid armies of* men were employed in their construction. The demand for rails and rolling stock promised a most: vigorous stimulus to other trades. But, according to Cunningham’s “ Growth of English Industry and’ Commerce ” speedy trade, 'depression and financial crisis ensued, from l which it took the country several years to recover. Cunningham wrote: “The period of commercial depression was chiefly due to the vigour with which railway' enterprise was taken up, and the fact that the ordinary course of commercial transaction was dislocated.

In the autumn of 1845, 2069 miles of raliway were opened with a capital of £64,000,000, and 3543 mijes were in progress, involving capital amounting to £74,500,000. There was no immediate return on this large amount of capital. It was for the time absolutely sunk. . The investment of so much money in forms not immediately productive had the result of injuring many branches of industry and depressing commence. In so far as the wealth devoted to railway enterprise was withdrawn from circulation in the form of wares, the effects were for the time being disastrous. The proprietors had less means available to purchase goods. Capitalists found their sales diminished; they were unable to replace their stock of materials or to “ontinue to pay wages until their' stores of finished goods were realised, and general stagnation resulted.”