THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1913. STATE SHIPOWNING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 October 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1913. STATE SHIPOWNING.

There are not a few people in NewZealand who are of opinion that the State should own the ferry steamer service between Wellington and Lyttelton. Some assert that the whole of the intercolonial shipping should be in the hands of the Government. These people probably do not appreciate the fact that shipowning, like other occupations, demands a certain amount of experience. Lloyd's Weekly Summary, of July 11th, points to the record of the Western Australian. Government, which, it says, may serve a useful purpose, costly though it seems likely to prove to the taxpayers of that State. Western Australia decided to embark in the steamship enterprise with a view, in the main, otf reducing the price of meat to the citizens of Perth. The upshot of its efforts has be,en that meat prices have been reduced, and that the earnings of the steamers for ten months amount to £40,000 as against an expenditure of £51,000, without apparently taking into account such essential items as interest and depreciation. All sorts of stories, says the Summary, came from Western Australia as to eccentricity in the management of this State's ships. It is not disputed that, instead of carrying meat, some of the-n have been employed in conveying hardwood and fertilisers to Eastern Australia. Indeed, one of the vessels got at least as far as New Zealand. It is averred that a particular firm chartered both a State and a private steamer at the same time to carry timber to New Zealand, and that the private owners received rates which were 25 per cent, higher than those accepted by the State. At any rate it is admitted that the master of the State steamer

had to borrow money from the New Zealand Government to pay his crew when he arrived there. This incident, suggestive as it is, does not by any means stand aldne. On the contrary, continues the Summary, we find a stock-dealer admitting that his firm made £923 by farming out the freight in connection with one of these State steamers, and going so far as to allege that the Western Australian Government, while professedly so solicitous about meat prices, was quite ready to assist him in cornering the meat market at Sydney. Naturally a good deal of interest has been displayed in this new venture in Western Australia itself. The public wanted to know how their money was being dealt with. The Colonial Secretary did exactly what might have been expected in the circumstances. He took the line that it would be very unwise to gratify idle curiosity and that he would in no circumstances divulge facts and figures which private shipowners might use to the Government's detriment. Of course, the facts and the figures are bound to come out in the long run, but we get in the attitude of the Colonial Secretary an insight into what must necessarily happen when a Government embarks in trading of this description. It sees in any enquiry a request for information which is to be used by its competitors to its own detriment; and so refuses information accoadingIy. The other day Lord Kitchener, suggested that if freights continued to rise, the Egyptian Government might hare to think about buying its own ships for the conveyance of coal for the Egyptian railways. Lord Kitchener would do well to note what is alleged in the case df Western Australia. It is averred thai the monopoly which the State steamers have of the carnage of Government stores not infrequently involves far heavier charges, than if the same goods had been despatched in privately-owned ships. There is a pretty general' feeling, too,, that the service is not debited with the cost of the services of other pnbKo departments. It would also seem that its accounts are very irregularly paid, and i+ts earnings collected in a manner which no private trader would tolerate. That these State steamers' have been unfortunate in the matter of navigation is prohably neither here nor there. But this completes the tale of ill-luck which attends this State's" experiment in ship-owning.