FOREIGN SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 2, 3 January 1934, Page 4

FOREIGN SHIPS.

TAKING BRITISH TRADE. Evidence is contained in tile new "Board of Trade Keturris of Oversea Trade" lor November of the increasing share of the commerce with the United Kingdom now being taken by foreign tonnage. The present returns show that during the ten months ended October 3L the not tonnage of British vessels which entered the ports of, the United Kingdom with cargoes declined by 425.000 tons, compared with the corresponding period of 19.32, and by as much as 2,411.000 tons on the first ten months of 1931. Foreign tonnage, on the other hand, increased by 1.022,000 tons, compared with the first ten .months of 1932, and by 2,501,000 tons on the same period of 1931. Compared with the first ten months ot 1932, the British net tonnage which cleaved with cargoes from the United Kingdom fell by 1,041.000 tons and by as much as 3.894,000 tons on the first-ten months ot 1931. Against these declines the net •oreign tonnage increased this year, foin-, pared with the corresponding period of j last year, bv 1.266,000 tons, and by 1,376,000 tons, compared with the first ten months of 1932. „ , . .. . . The larger share of foreign shipping in the trade may be attributable to such causes as its ability, through lower working costs or the receipt of Government subsidies, to compete very keenly and to secure trade which otherwise would be carried by British vessels, and, in the case of tonnage clearing from this country with cargoes, to the direction of merchandise to national vessels.