SHIPPING PROGRESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 300, 19 December 1934, Page 8

SHIPPING PROGRESS

NEW MOTOR VESSELS.

PROBLEM OF SUBSIDIES.

MR. C. M. TURRELI. RETURNS

Mr. C. M. Turrell, director and general manager in New Zealand of the New Zealand Shipping Company, returned from England to-day by the liner Rangitata.

With his wife, Mr. Turrell left on a combined business and pleasure trip to England in May. He was present at the launching at the yards of Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast, of the company's new motor ship Durham, Mrs. Turrell performing the christening ceremony! ißhe Durham, a vessel of 11,000 tons, iy at -present in Australian waters. s jjj*e is being followed by the Dorset, another vessel specially built for the Australian and New ZcalauJllomc trade.

Both new vessels, said Mr. Turrcll, weve fitted with improved Sultzer Diesel engines, with solid injection instead of air injection, and fresh water cooled. The new type of engines were showing excellent results, the chief feature being that the same speed was attained with a lower fuel consumption. Mr. and Mrs. Turrell were also on the official platform as guests of the Cunard Company at the launching of the Queen Mary. Foreign Competition. Conditions in England, from the shipbuilders' point of view, appeared to, be a little better, said Mr. Turrell, although much of the work in hand was the replacement of old tonnage. "A feature that struck me was that the authorities in England are becoming a little more conscious of the seriousness of the competition' from other countries which are subsidising their shipping. A little while ago Parliament voted a subsidy to tramp owners of £2,000,000, but nothing was done for the liners. Personally, 1 think that the owners of liners would prefer to see protection in some form other than in the way of a subsidy." Mr. Turrcll mentioned that he was a member of a deputation which waited on Mr. J. IT. Thomas, Dominion Secretary, concerning the question of shipping competition between New Zealand and Australia by subsidised lines. Return of Confidence. In a reference to conditions in England generally, Mr. Turrell said that they were very much better than on his last visit. People were spending their money more freely—there was no lack of money in England —and there had been a return of confidence which was urgently needed. People were now putting money more in industrial ventures. Railway company earning showed a marked increase, probably due ,in some part to the fact that the adverse exchange position on the Continent was keeping many people from travelling abroad.

Mr. Turrell will leave Auckland by car to-morrow for Wellington, via llotorua and Napier.