No Ships, No Goods

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26395, 13 April 1951, Page 6

No Ships, No Goods

The shipping agents’ warning to British exporters that sailings for Australia and New Zealand in the next three months are likely to be reduced by about half is unpleasant news, not less unpleasant because something of the sort has been expected. For reasons discussed recently in these columns, there is to-day a serious shortage of shipping to carry the normal trade of the world; and as more and more ships have been diverted to the carriage of government cargoes for defence purposes, stockpiling, and Indian famine relief, it has become increasingly important that the best possible use should be made of the remaining available tonnage. Shipowners, obviously, would not willingly send their vessels to New Zealand and Australian ports, where cargo-handling is slow at the best of times and where their ships might now be immobilised for weeks or months, when there is plenty of trade offering in foreign ports which will load and discharge cargo in a

fraction of the time. According to shipowners (who should know), New Zealand and Australian ports are the slowest cargo-handlers in the world. Comparisons have often been made with the speed of cargo-handling in British ports—very much to the disadvantage of the Dominions. It is interesting to note, however, that since high operating costs and the shortage of shipping caused this problem to be given closer study, shippers have recognised that British ports fall far short of the ideal as a standard of comparison. There is evidence, indeed, that foreign shipping lines prefer to trade to Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp rather than to London for precisely' the same reasons that British and foreign shipping lines are now shunning Australia and New Zealand. Fbr a variety of reasons, of which labour conditions are one, the turn-round time in British ports is now about 10 days, compared with three days for a similar cargo on the Continent. A moment’s thought about these facts should make New Zealanders and Australians realise how badly the present chaos on the waterfronts—particularly the New Zealand waterfront—is serving the respective countries. At a time when every country in the world is competing strenuously for scarce and valuable shipping space, conditions in the ports are driving the ships away. The results will be very uncomfortable for this country. No one should be in any doubt about that. New Zealand is dependent on outside sources of supply for many things in which she could and should be self-sufficient. Coal, cement, and wheat are examples. Shipping space must be found for these and for other essential cargoes; and with fewer vessels calling here, there will be precious little room left for ordinary merchandise- -for the consumer goods which have lately been increasingly available or for others which seemed at last to have been put within the reach of New Zealanders through the easing of import controls. New Zealand may be in for a new era of shortages, the effects of which, will be felt long after sanity has! returned to the waterfront. ■