SHIPPING COMPETITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 3

SHIPPING COMPETITION.

TO BE DISCUSSED AT OTTAWA. DEPUTATION TO MR. FORBES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The question of foreign competition with Dominion shipping is to be brought up for discussion at the Ottawa Economic Conference, according to a reply by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, to a deputation from the New Zealand branch of the Navy League. The president, Mr. W. Perry, said the continuance of New Zealand and Australian vessels, and the livelihood of the crews, were seriously threatened by the competition of American vessels which were subsidised by their Government to a grotesque extent, and either built with Government money, or in the case of cargo vessels, sold to the present owners by the Government at extraordinarily low prices. Mr. Perry said the annual value of the assistance received from the American Government by the three large vessels of the Oceanic line, of which two were now running and one would be ready shortly, apparently amounted to over £400,000, while cargo vessels from United States Pacific ports to New Zealand and Australia were running under contracts with subsidies amounting to about £78,000 a year. Replying, the Prime Minister said the New Zealand delegation to the Ottawa Conference would see that the subject came up for discussion. Our merchant shipping must be maintained, and it was hard hit just now.