“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1936. THE PROBLEM OF PACIFIC SHIPPING.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 305, 9 December 1936, Page 4

“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1936. THE PROBLEM OF PACIFIC SHIPPING.

!: In a cable message this week, the New York Herald-Tribune complains of the restrictive legislation passsd in New Zealand concerning the carriage of passengers and freight across the Tasman in other than British ships. Il fears a Hag monopoly” and says that " the competition of the Maison Line in the Pacific has had an “energising effect.” Unthinking members of the public might support the view of the eminent New York newspaper. Travellers have in the past cerfa nly supported the Matson service at the expense of our own. Ihe American ships were more palatial, they were speedy, and the service oil cred was of the best. Now the public can learn the reason why. It is all contained report, released on Monday, of the Imperial Shipping Committee. Actually the report contained nothing new, but the facts of the case are presented therein, officially to the public. And that should do good, for how many people knew the details of the tremendous subsidies given to the Matson Line? For the construction’of the Mariposa, the Matson Company received from the United States Shipping Board 5,850,000 dollars at 2 per cent., and for the Monterey, 5,82 7,000 dollars at £ per cent. Three-quarters of the cost of the ships were loaned by the -State. Io date, 2,000,000 dollars of the second loan have been repaid. for operation, the company received’ “mail payments” of nearly 800,000 dollars a year, of which; only I 75,000 dollars should have been paid at the normal poundage rate. In the last j three years these payments have increased to 1,000,000 dollars a ! year, though on poundage rates they should have been only j I 35,000 dollars. Existing mail contracts cease on June 30, 1937, ! after which a new basis of assistance to neutralise the higher costs ’ cf building and operating American ships is to be fixed. I Surely it has not been difficult for the Matson Company io ; provide an efficient service when in receipt of such subsidies! For I the payments it has received are out of all proportion to the mail- ! carrying services rendered; i i V As against those subsidies, our British ships in the Pacific re- I reived only mail payments of comparatively trifling amounts. The j Union Line from San Francisco to Wellington find Sydney received I 0.2 3,000 per annum. 1 lie C.-.A. Line from Vancouver received ■ in all £68,000 per year. I hese payments were definitely on a j poundage basis, and in no way subsidies. They were payments made for mail-carrying services rendered. 1 he Union Steam Ship Company have long been criticised for not offering such a lavish service as the Matson Line. The answer I is that llie company simply could not do it, and since so much j patriotims is mere selfishness, business went from our own line to the American one. I o-clay, with splendid’ courage, the Union Company have built the Awatea. When the unfair American competition is removed, two more new ships wall go on the Pacific ser- 1 vice. Ihe delay is not of the company’s asking. it is clue to the i irresponsibility of past Governments. I