THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1913. SHIPPING COMBINATIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 24 May 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1913. SHIPPING COMBINATIONS.

There is. a' marked tendency through- | out "the'world at tlie present time to promote combinations in trade. These combinations are being ..brought about by the development of industrial and other conditions that make for the exploitation of industry. The position is that. Capital must must be made to earn a certain rate of interest. If it cannot so in aire way, it will do so in another. Thus we find that whenever there is a turn of the taxation or Labour screw, the prioa of commodities and of public conveniences is proportionately increased. So > long as the commercial spirit controls human* nature, so long will this continue. The latest form of combination is in respect to shipping. Within the past year the historic ißoyal Mail Steam Packet Company—so long associated with the West Indies mail service—has expanded into the largest shipping combine in the world;- While its absorption of the Union Castle line is still fresh in the public memory, it has now acquired the/ Nelson lines, trading to South America, which gives it a total ton-, nage of'nearly one and a half millions. The Hamburg-Amertka line is said to come second, and the International Mercantile Marine —the formation of which." created a stir a few years ago—is third only, with a little over a million tons. The- Colonial Institute Journal points out that .these-amalgamations are quite in accordance with the modern tendency to substitute 00-operfttiom for cutthroat competition in every sphere of life—except armaments. Biit in respect of shipping is. is *' tendency which closely affects' empire interests and needs careful watching. Australia an 4 i£«m Zealand, a* exporters of Irezftj* ateai, aad Stomtfe Afdoa m w

exporter of maize—to name only oraa or twd oases—we competitors with South America for. the' British market and have sometimes had to complain about freight fates, though ther* does not seem to be much ground for'complaint at present. They ean hardly bo expected to view without anxiety the prospect of a carrying monopoly which would bo as much interested in tha development of South American as of British countries. But the. way to protect! the Britannic, interests is not by decrying the 'economic process of combination, but by creating some joint authority, such as the proposed Empire as a whole. Such a Board, or any n?vr Empire Government, might be able to more easily with a I few big companies thaa a. hsst of I small ones.