MR. HUGHES' SHIPPING PURCHASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 1 July 1916, Page 6

MR. HUGHES' SHIPPING PURCHASE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The doubt expressed by the Premier that Mr. Hughes bad purchased a fleet of cargo steamers on behalf of trie Commonwealth, is uot a reasonable i doubt, as the matter is an indubitable fact. Mr. Massey's fear that the transaction was not financially wise owing to the high price paid for the ships is quite j groundless when the circumstances are I considered. The price paid, I undcr'stand, is approximately two million pounds. Now, the profit earning power of the ships at the present time is about 1 £900,000 per annum gross. The ships ■ will carry 100,000 tons of cargo. The working expenses will only absorb a relatively small portion of such large earning, so that the profit on the transaction to the people of Australia will be enormous. Mr. Hughes has shown himself to be a strong courageous statesman—a man of action and not merely a man of words. His coup is endorsed in this Dominion by all those thousands who believe in State action wisely exercised for the benefit of the people as a whole, and not for tbe benefit of a small class of foreign shipping magnates. The farmers and citizens of the Dominion are being bled -white by the shipping ring, and thie time has arrived for our Government to seriously consider the propriety of acquiring both cargo steamers for our frozen meat, and passenger ships of. say. 20.000 tons each to bring the peoples of New Zealand and Australia into closer touch with each other. The dependence of our people on a few non-resident capitalists to enable us to "■et from our island home to the outer c world is surely an anomaly. Why can- , not we help ourselves, own our oversea ehdps, and thereby give a great impetus , to our development and keep a large sum of monejr in our pockets? Stateowned New Zealand meat ships would put at Ica3t an extra million of money per annum in our fanners , pockets.—l am. etc., W. J. NAPIER. June 29,1916.