The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1916. NAVIGATION LAWS SUGGESTED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 91, 23 March 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1916. NAVIGATION LAWS SUGGESTED.

A few days ago, speaking in Wellington, Sir Joseph Ward suggested that German and Austrian steamships, after the war, should be forbidden to coal at the ports of the Empire—a drastic proposal which carries with it suggestions as to the directions in which the prohibition might be extended. Referring to this, the Christchurch Press says: It is a proposal quite in the spirit of the old Navigation Laws, the utility of which are discussed in an English journal by Mr T. Swinborne Sheldrake. Mr Sheldrake mentions that in 1903 he wrote to Mr Chamberlain proposing that a policy of shipping subsidies might be as good as, or better than, a policy of differential Customs duties. Mr Chamberlain replied that he "did not think that it would be possible for him to enter into the question of subsidies to shipping at the present time, as he was so fully occupied. The matter.' however,", he added, "is well worth the fullest consideration, and you are doing good service in calling attention to it." If the history of commerce has one lesson more clear than another, Mr Sheldrake observes, it is that carriers, sooner or later, control the trade in the goods they transport, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries Holland, the great carrying nation, became the storehouse and clearing-house of the world. It has been stated that about 1650 four-fifths of all the ships engaged in oceanic commerce were Dutch; no English pori was I he equal of Amsterdam, which was not only the premier port but the centre oJ exchange of the world. English commerce was dependent on Dutch shipping. Cromwell met this condition of things by passing the Navigation j Act in J 651. Under this Act English] vessels alone were allowed to import.

goods into England and the English plantations, except in the case or vessels belonging to the' country in which the goods which they Carrfed were produced. Dutch trade ceased to grow, and the great .Western ports of England began to thrive forthwith.! This Act remained in force until 1«19,| and when it was repealed German' slapping Mas able to rise into strength. The suggestion that this; policy should be re-enacted is to be! discussed amongst other po,st-warj problems, at a meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Britain] this week. Mr Sheldrake holds that' this policy will he far more effective than a new system of tarrffs, and he points out that already the principle of the Navigation Laws is in operation in America and Australia, where aircn ships are not allowed to engage in: coastwise trade. In Germany people are alive to the possibility of some: such effective action against German shipping. J