BRITISH SHIPPING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 84, 10 April 1945, Page 3

BRITISH SHIPPING

FUTURE COMPETITION NEED FOR UNITED POLICY O.C. WELLINGTON, this day. The importance of shipping to New Zealand and the British Commonwealth as a whole, and the need for a , united policy to meet competitors in the post-war years were stressed by speakers at a farewell tendered by the Company of Master Mariners to Captain W. M. McLeod, deputy harbour-master at Wellington, who has retired after 26 years' service with the harbour board. The Mayor, Mr. Appleton, who proposed the toast to the Mercantile Marine, said that New Zealand owed a very great deal to ships and to the men who sailed in them. The development of marine refrigeration furnished a romantic story of the application of science to trade. Demand and supply connoted progress in many aspects of the world's affairs, and it was largely to the enterprise of the shipping companies and their associated industries in marine refrigeration that the Dominion of New Zealand owed its present state of development and prosperity. It was primarily the demand in Britain for greater meat supplies that called for the discovery of some means for the safe delivery of those supplies from overseas. Debt to Officers ana Men "I think we of the Empire cannot too often remind ourselves of the debt we owe to the officers and men who have manned our ships throughout the years, particularly during the hazards of the last Great War and the present conflict," said Mr. Appleton. "The men of the British Merchant Navy, facing perils and horrors previously undreamed of, have taken their ships to sea without flinching. They have maintained throughout the long, weary years, the sea commerce of the Empire and the sea services essential to the winning of the war. They have transported millions of tons of foodstuffs, and munitions of war, and millions of troops. Every British soldier who fights has to be carried by sea. They keep the navy, the army, and the air force supplied with food, fuel, stores and ammunitions; and have faced the dread horrors of submarine warfare in order to save the British people from starvation. "We owe a debt of gratitude also I to those sturdy and far-seeing men of the past who founded our shipping companies, and to their colleagues, both overseas and coastal, of the present day, who have carried on their great traditions. Years ago, the lot of the men of the Mercantile Marine was a hard one, and many improvements needed to be made. Our Marine Department here is to be congratulated for the interest it takes in the welfare of the men and for the good work it has done." Effect of Air, Transport Mr. W. B. Millier, acting-secretary of the Marine Department, who replied on behalf of the Department, referred to the effects that the development of air transport must have on shipping, and said that it behoved the powers that be to do something to protect the Mercantile Marine in the post-war years. He said he would like to see a series of conferences held in the various parts of the Empire to consider what was necessary to develop and protect the Empire's shipping industry, culminating in an Imperial conference, where representatives from all parts of the Empire and representing all the many aspects of the shipping industry should formulate a united front to meet competition. Mr. Millier also said he considered that the four methods of transport— sea, air, rail and motor—should be co-ordinated under a separate Minis, try of Transport, which would tend to eliminate the more uneconomic aspects of competition between the various services. Captain S. Holm, who spoke on behalf of the coastal shipping, quoted figures to show the decline that had taken place in New Zealand coasta: shipping over the Jast 30 years. Af the outbreak of war in 1914 there were 616 New Zealand coastal ships with a tonnage of 159,000, while al the outbreak of the present war their number had dwindled to 492, with a tonnage of 93,000, a decrease of 2C per cent in the number of ships and of 40 per cent in tonnage, and this decline, he said, was still going on, In 1914 the number of seamen per manently employed was 5477, while in 1939 the number had fallen tc 2965. In 1930 the number of calls at port by coastal ships totalled 20,300, in 1935, 18,300 calls were made; in 1940 the number was 16,200, while in 1942 it had fallen tc 13,600.