SHIPPING LOSSES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3034, 22 March 1917, Page 5

SHIPPING LOSSES

; CAN AUSTRALIA HELP? FACTORS WHICH: HINDER SUCCESS , /The question" has ■ been raised (says pn Australian contemporary) whether (Australia will ■ be • able to assist the Empiro in making good the shipping tonnage depleted by Germany's ruthless policy of submarining. To Sydney, which is tho main centre of Australian shipbuilding activity, one must look for an answer. It is in a-dis-tinct negative. The causes which have [militated against any wido expansion bf the shipbuilding industry hero in the past are the causes whioh to-day finally disposes of any move to mako up in a national emergency the task (i in this work, whioh is part irad parcel of Empire defence. Sydney, dike many other Australian ports, has fell the natural facilities for the con-

struction and launching of vessels of .lai-ge tonnage, but she'lacks the maftarial for ship construction. There is !a shortage of skilled shipbuilding laEur, and the attitude of the trades ions is suoh that big shipbuilding s been practically Tendered unprofitable for years past. ' Given the .mkfterial, the labour, and 'a. system of pay;iuent of employees by piece-work ' instead of by day. labour, and Sydney shipbuilders predict boundless possibilities .for the industry. As far as the construction of wooden vessels goes, Sydney is doing a thriving business 'this year. Orders on'hand and pending indicate a. recovery from the stagnating influences of the war, and it is _ believed that 'the output will mora •'than equal the accumulated of the last,two years. ' There are numerous small 5 yards Vhich turn out wooden vessels of 1 a ■moderate tonnage, and three or four •whose wages bills run to over £30,000 » year each. One of these h»8 just . secured an order for six auxiliary ■wooden sohooheTS, Tanging from 500 to • 800 tons register each. It is to proceed almost immediately with the work, 'tvhich was given to it in preference to l&n American shipbuilding yard whioh ; competed for-it. These'vessels will be owned in Sydney, and will bo used ; largely in the island trade and probably in the payable freight-carrying business between Sydney and. the American Pacific slope. Small local coastal steamers, .construoted of wood, luggers,, and schooners for the islands, .ferry steamers for the harbour services, itugs of a serviceable size, launches and . boats, are under construction . at" all ! these yards devoted to wooden shipbuilding. However, the work, is merely what remains over for oomple-t-L 71 l roI ° P™* w ar orders, and owing to .the shortage of material the industry is Work at Mort's dock, fwhich should have . beajj completed i ' months ago, is still on hand, with the prospect of a considerable . Japse of time before delivery. . A practioal illustration of Australia's incapability to aid, in the work of renewing submarined tonnage is provided Jjy the fact that only a month or so has elapsed since a /Big American syndicate offered a contract for a number ,tof steamers of about 8000 tons register each. The work had to be refused, finis is perhaps the biggest Bhip building order ever offered to an Australian <brm. It would have meant an expendi- £?. 011 the hulls alone of well over a tailhon pounds. It is noteworthy that after Mort's Dock had refusecf the .work, the syndicate approached the Government ship building yards at WilJiamstown, and again the order' had to ibe refused, there being no material available,. a shortage of skilled workmen, and no prospeot of inducing the ,'unions to agree to the work being carried out oji a system of payment by piece work,' which, it is asserted, is the only system .whereby the industry can be made to pay. This experience emphasises the need for the. production at such places as the Broken Hill Company's steel works at Newcastle of .plates, suitable for ship-building, ■in order that the industry may get its materials locally. Those in control '.of the steel ship building yards in Sydney state that the average wage of ,the employees under the day work ayajtem is_ about £4 to £6. per week, which ■5s equivalent to, that paid to ship-build--sng employees in Great Britain under the piece work system for thfee or four Says' work. The unions here have, Nevertheless, set themselves determinedly against the introduction of piece "work, because the efficient worker Would lave' to ."carry on his baok" the payable worker. Since the outbreak »f isar, ship builders state, the shortage of skilled labour has been' accentuated owing to enlistments and the departure of skilled mechanics for Great Britain. The prospects for largo ship building are tersely summed up by the taanager of Mort's Dock as follows:— ''We can build' anything provided we get the men, tho material, and piece \work." •

There are differing opinions among Shipbuilders as to tho progress of the Sydney shipbuilding industry during recent years. Their conclusions aro, course, largely moulded by their own actual experiences. However, official figures sTjow a steady decrease in construction since the quinqennial period 1881 to 1885, when the tonnage launched _ was 84,049. In the following period, 1886 to 1890, it was only 8046, and TjStween 1906 and 1010 it had come down to 6114. _ The following fable shows the position of the induwry during the last fivo years. Salaries Total , and Value of Employees, wages. Output. • £ * • £ ■ * 1910 : ..IOOS 222,101 402,363 1011 2429 305,032 547,117 1012 3160 427,045 700,023 1013 3358 465,112 787,528 1914-15 ... 4708 669,916 1,034,070 Tf. will bo seen from the above figures that the value of tlio output in 1913 was nearly equal to the total value for the two years 1914 and 1915. The high percentage of the labour cost 'each year, too, is significant. Steel ship builders complain bitterly of tlie operation of the go-slow policy, and assert that tlio industry for ten years past, owing to the day-worlc system insisted on by the unions, has not been payable. ' 15 ; s evident that there aro somp big problems to, solve before 'Australia cjn compelo with other countries in shipbuilding enterprise.