The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo MONDAY. MAY 1,1925. BRITISH SHIPBUILDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 103, 4 May 1925, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo

MONDAY. MAY 1,1925. BRITISH SHIPBUILDING.

. i For the cause that lacks assiatanoe, For the wrong that needs For the future in the distance, i And rfrifl that tee co-n -r£o.

Tin-re is a connection between last. week's mcss:l<rp staling- that foreirjii sliiplmililei'B hail again umlereul Urilish in tenders for a large British order, and House of ('ominous mi a private Hill to make a -IS hour week universal in British industry. The a vera pre week in British shipyards, accordins to Mr. Archibald lliiril, the noted writer "ii naval and sliippir.c, affairs, is forty-six, whereas the worker in the (lermiin industry, which competitor, works fifty-four hours a week. The Cierniiui worker, says Mr. Iltird, knows little or nothing of the trn-le iiui.,ll regulations iiii|,i)sed on Itritioli .shipbuilders. The British unions nre asking for higher wages, but the employers say they cannot consider an | increase unless the men are prepared to revise existing conditions, the most vital of which is'the hours worked. The men, however, are not disposed to surj render the advantage of short hours that they won with so inn, h effort. It is ironical thai British workers should lie penalised through having pushed thi' trade union movement further, for their own protection, than have their Continental rivals. It is to be Imped that al the projected conference between shipbuilding employers and men all these factors will be honestly considered. In the meantime son t" the considerations urged hy Mr. lliiril are worth noiiim. There are 80.01)0 men unemployed in the shipbuildj ing and engineering trades, and it is a j very sctiotis thing that large orders " like those placed by Fiiiness, Withy and Company and the Blue Star Line should go abroad. But are such firms lo be denounced as iinpatrioi ie when they send such orders abroad'/ Mr. Hurd defends, thcin. The shipping industry, he says, ia international. Shipping companies cannot compete against foreign competitors if tiny pay 10,, much for | their ships. In the ,-hm- of 1-imiess. Withy and Co., the fiernian tender for 'I five ships was £.'100.0(10 lower than the ' i British; in that, mentioned last week l there Mould lv- a difference ~f £144,000 iagninsl ihe Urilish builder. If ships could n-i pay Ibeir way the whole shipping industry would be injured. Mr. Kurd says Hull it is a mistake lo suppose liiat British shipbuilding is an entirely British business. A large proportion of the raw material tiscl in making ships comes from abroad. Jiiilish shipbuilders have bought in the cheapest market, so that they might c-et orders against foreign compeiil ion, ami Mr. Hurd thinks that shipowners have a rigid to attach tin- same degree of importance lo cheapness. Mr. Hurd admits the difficulty of reducing operating costs. "Th,. shipyard worker is paid less than the man who sweeps the streets or collects the refuse from our houses." Lunger hours would improve the position of British shipyards, but he regards the problem ns much wider than the question of shipyard conditions. "I'nsheltered" trades are suffering, lie says, because in in.ltts- , tries not exposed to foreign competition wages are too high. The policy of regarding an industry as having no rela- , tion to other industries is ruinous. There ' may be some means of bringing down i prices, so that wages would go further. ] lie docs not indicate how this is to be done, but, like many other students of affairs, be urges consideration of the whole problem at a round-table confer- , enee of the parties.