The Shipping Fusion.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15938, 27 June 1917, Page 6

The Shipping Fusion.

In another column we have published tho full text of tho statement made by tho Hon. 6. W. Russell to a "Do- " minion" reporter in reference to the fusion of the Union Steam Ship Company with the P. and 0. Company. Every New Zealander, we believe, regrets the absorption in a London company of two such fine local institutions as the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Union Steam Ship Company. But it is only part of a great movement in the shipping world which had commenced before the war, and which in the opinion of many wellinformed persons is now imperatively necessary if Great Britain is to hold her own in the competition which is bound to take place after the war—a competition which will not be confined to Germany, but in which some of our present allies will bo justly and honourably entitled to do their best to secure tho carrying trado of the world. Upon this point Mr Masscy and Sir Joseph Ward will no doubt bo alflo to speak with authority, and we think it would havo been wiser, as well as more becoming, on Mr Russell's part, had he waited to hear what they havo to' say before rushing into

print with his own views upon a subject regarding which he is apparently imperfectly informed. He speaks of tho dividend of the P. anil 0. Company as being 5 per cent, beforo tho war, whereas, as a matter of fact, it was 15 per cent., and it has only been increased by 3 per cent., tho last dividend being at tho rate of 18 per cent, per annum,.

If it were necessary to tako over the Union Company for tho purpose of helping to win tho war, wc should not have n word to say against tho proposal. But tho British Government now has complete control not only over the P. and O. Company, but oyer the shipping of the British Empire. It is obvious, therefore, that if the New Zealand Government wore to step in now and assume control of the Union Company tho only result would be to produco a conflict of authority which might impair tho national efficiency, instead of increasing it.

As for tho proposal to pay four million pounds of tho taxpayers' money to buy out tho Union Company so that it may bo run by tho Government as a commercial proposition in peaco time —presumably as a branch of tho Marino Department—wo confess that wo cannot contemplate such a prospect without a shudder. Wo have always held 'that it would be quite a legitimate undertaking on the part of the Railway Department to run a ferry service betwoon Wellington and Lyttelton, as a necessary connexion between the railway systems of tho two islands, hut wo doubt very much whether the public would have been better served than they have been by the Union Company. Tho RaiHvay Department, it will be remembered, took over the steamers on Lake Wakatipu, ana tho result of the experiment has not been such, cither commercially or from the point cf view of the comfort of the travelling public, to encourage any larger attempts in the samo direction. As for a vast commercial concern like tho Union Company, with operations extending all over tho world, being handed over to tho control of a New Zealand Minister and a branch of tho Civil Service, wo confess to finding the prospcct somewhat appalling. The shipping trade is notoriously speculative, and success is dependent upon very skilful management by men who have had a lifelong oxpcrienco at tho work. The opportunities of jobbery and inefficiency leading to possible disaster in ilr Russell's proposal aro such that wo think it will he'for better to leave it alone.