THE NAVY LEAGUE PROTEST

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 248, 10 June 1932, Page 4

THE NAVY LEAGUE PROTEST

The N.Z. Navy League has taken it upon itself to shoulder the cudgels on behalf of the New Zealand shipping cornpanies in their vociferous protest against threatened competition from America. In the role of a patriotic defender of its country's interests, the League will no doubt anticipate an enthusiastic public support, but when subjected to analysis, the grounds for its action are difficult to perceive. We have already expressed the opinion that the New Zealand shipping cornpanies have only themselves to blame for a challenge which, if it does nothing else, may force them to a realisation of their shortcomings. Reasonable enterprise in- catering for overseas traffic in the past, would have provided them with adequate defences against this incursion upon their protected preserves, and they would not noW be subjected to what they apparently regard as the slings and arrows of an altogether outrageous fortune. It is a time-worn axiom that competition is good for trade, and from whatever source it proceeds, competition in the New Zealand overseas shipping trade will have a beneficial effect so far as the paying public is concerned. The League's contention that the proposed American competition is "subsidised by the Government to a grotesque extent," in itself tends to the grotesque. The American Government has pursued a policy of encouraging shipping industry by advancing money for building on long term loans at a low rate of interest, and it is on this accommodation that the Matson Company is entering the New Zealand field. The system is similar to that pursued by our own Government to eneourage building and land settlement. It cannot be described as a subsidy, but" is a rneasure of assistance which before long must also be extended to British shipping. Apparently the League is anxious to delineate the New Zealand cornpanies as martyred in a patriotic cause but in point of fact theirs is, and has been, a very distinctly commercial attitude. The Union Steamship Company has for years enjoyed what has amounted to a virtual monopoly of a large proportion of the New Zealand overseas trade, while there have been several instances in which it has been given a monopoly in fact. The South Island ferry service is one, and comparatively recently, the subsidy extended to the company for the operation of a Bluff-Dunedin-Melbourne service, is another. In fact the lTnion Steamship Company in the role of the small boy threatened by the overbearing bully, is distinctly unconvincing. We have every sympathy with the Navy League's contention that, other things being equal, a British country should support British institutions, but in this case the introduction of the American bogey catch-cry by the Navy League savours of speciousness. The proposed American competition will bring to this country a very large body of valuable business, and it would be shortsighted in the extreme to ignore this fact. If the Americans have sufficient enterprise to explore and develop this traffic, they are entitled to the benefit. Opportunity has been knocking at the doors of others for long enough. Rotorua, as the Dominion's chief tourist centre, has a primary interest in this matter, for when the proposed Matson service eventuates, unquestionably this district will benefit to a very material extent. It has already been pointed out in these columns, that many millions of American dollars can be brought into this country to give labour to New Zealand hands through the development of the American tourist traffic, and any company which will promote that development, is at least entitled to an opportunity to enter into fair and legitimate competition. If other commercial interests have failed to seize this opportunity, the country as a whole should not be penalised to protect them.