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Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1932, Page 4

Some idea of the uneconomic nature of State shipping enterprises and the burden they impose on taxpayers is given by a report issued last month on the operations of the Canadian Government Merchant Marine’s fleet of twenty-nice vessels. In 1930 the operating deficit Avas £208,500 and in 1931, as a result of a heavy curtailment of the number of voyages, the deficit was reduced to £111,070. The capital and operating losses since the fleet Avas purchased during the War amount to about £20,3?0,0C0, and even this figure does not represent the full cost of the venture to Canadian taxpayers. In the case of State-OAvn-ecl shipping the loss is easily seen and sooner or later, as in AustranaT, the taxpayers Avill insist on being reliev'd of the burden. State subsidies to priwately turned lines are more harmful because they merely serve to cover up losses and are a direct incentive to freight-cutting. British shiooAvners do not get, and do not ask for, State aicl, and as a consequence the British shipping industry has hem particularly badly hit by the competition of subsidised merchant marines. The la-test issue of Lloyd’s Register shows that in 1931 the output of British shipbuilding yards Avns only 502,187 tons, a decrease of 976,076 tors on th° figures for 1930, and the loAvest to tad since 1888, when Lloyd’s Register Avas fipst issued. Even more disquieting is the progressive decline in the British percentage cf total Avorld production. In 1931, Avhen foreign outnut still remained ht 15 re- rent, above the 1913 level, the British out nut had fallen to one-third of the 1913 figure.