THE WAR AND SHIPPING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 124, 25 May 1916, Page 4

THE WAR AND SHIPPING.

Nearly every country in the world has felt the effect of the war on shipping, since it has entailed greatly increased freights and an enormous diminntion in the amount of tonnage available. Certain commodities which before the war were carried at 5/ and 7/6 per ton are now costing 155/ to 175/ for transportation. Previous to the war, rice "was carried from Burma to the United Kingdom for 21/9 per ton, while the price to-o .y is 150/ per~ton. Argentine wheat is now carried at 152/ per ton instead of the former price of 18/. In the case of some lines of goods the increase has been as much as forty times the amoiurt charged two years ago. The indirect cost to the people of Great Britain in the first nineteen months of the war owing to the rice in freights hais been calculated at £400,000,000, while the net profits in the shipping industry for 1915 were put at £250,000----000 ac against £20,000,000 for 1913. Manyneutral shipowners have made iroge fortunes out of the rise in freights. One firmof foreign shippers recently sold two of their most obsolete small vessels for £40,000 each. These vessels cost £20,000 eaJch 25 yearn ago, and wonld by now have been "scrapped'" but for the tsar and the corresponding large rise in freights. Yet the purchaser, though heiadpaid for each vessel twice as much as they had cost when new, reckoned that three voyages would give him his purchase money back and leave him a substantial profit, and the first voyage of each ship showed a net profit of £15,000, or considerably more than a third of what he had expended.

Much of the shortage of shipping ia of course due to the German submarine campaign. The total loss of British and neutral shipping in 1915 arising from all causes was over 1,800,000 tons, the heaviest loss for any year prior to the war having been 500,000 tons. Taking vessels of 500 tons and over gross register, we find that during last year 726 such vessels were lost, and of these 321 British and 212 foreign vessels were directly sunk by German agency. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that while nearly all neutral countries were heavy losers, the great Danish shipping line has not lost a single ship since the two steamers it lost at the beginning of the war, though its ships traverse a more dangerous zone than Xorwegian boate, of which fifty-three have been sunk. Some people have imagined from this that Denmark is giving considerable assistance to Germany.

But there are other reasons besides tfte activity of German submarines for the present shortage of shipping. The British shipbuilding output for 1015 wa3 less than half what it was for the previous year, being 650.000 tons as against 1,350.000 for 1914. As the total British tonnage lost in 1915 amounted to 997,092 tons, there was a net loss of over 340,000 tons. This shortage, which would have been serious enough in itself, was enormously accentuated by the action of the Government in taking most of the largest merchant vessels for military purposes. No figures are available as to the actual number and tonnage of the vessels thus requisitioned, but when we remember the enormous number of troops that have been moved by sea from different parts of our Empire, it will easily be seen that this cause alone must be responsible for a large amount of the present shortajs;. Another contributing cause hae been the shortage of labour at some of the docks at Home. One vessel lay at a dock in the Mersey for nearly two months before its cargo could he discharged, and during that time fifteen other vessels were lying in the stream waiting for its berth when it was cleared. The shortage of shipping has caused great competition for space amongst merchants with poods to ship, and a consequent raising of freights hy the shipowners. This has naturally caused a rapid rise in the cost of living and a serious shortage in main* of the bulkier articles of import. Unfortunately there does not seem any immediate prospect of any marked amelioration of the situation.