STATE TRADING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 8

STATE TRADING.

EFFECT ON SHIPPING.

"RELENTLESS" COMPETITION.

NORTHERN S.S. CO.'S POSITION. A vigorous protest against uneconomic competition by the Railway Department was voiced by Sir Ernest Davis, chairman of directors of the Northern Steamship ■ Company, at to-day's annual meeting of shareholders. '"In spite of the increases in operating costs and the shorter working hours given to its employees by the company," said the speaker, "the Railways Department relentlessly maintained, its competitive rates to ports jointly served by it and the company. How the Department can manage to do this I confess I do not know..

"After all, the Northern Company" lias substantiated its case for fair treatment. It does not solicit a preference, but claims only that'which is reasonable and just. The company, be it remembered, has played an important part in the development of the Auckland Province. Throughout its existence its services have been linked' with the welfare of the commercial and farming communities and they have assisted development of the hinterland of the North. As a matter as much of duty as of business, regular, dependable services have been established to parts which the railways could not touch and the districts affected have been served well.

"Where, however, penetration has been practicable, the railways, backed to the hilt by the Consolidated Fund, have come in and by uneconomic competition have endeavoured to skim the cream off the shipping trade offering there. From a Governmental point of view there would have been more justice in paying the company a State subsidy than in employing funds as a buttress for cut-throat railway competition. Personally I would sound a note of caution to the railways: continuation of the unjust preference may lead to the extinction of yet another coastal shipping company and its allied services. What we want is co-ordina-tion, not destructive competition."