MANY SHIPS AND HIGH FREIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 20 July 1921, Page 4

MANY SHIPS AND HIGH FREIGHTS

Calculating approximately from the rough figures cabled to-day, it seems that the world's tonnage of iron and steel steamers exceeds the tonnage of 1914 by more than 25 per cent., and is now over 54 million tons. The apparent anomaly between an over-abundant supply of shipping, and the persistent dearness of oversea freights from and to New Zealand, may be explained by the fact that New Zealand's freights problem turns on a special class of steamers (refrigerated), by the uncertain factor of labour-cost, and by other considerations peculiar to the shipping industry. Generally speaking, an excess of shipping is incompatible with clearness of shipping services, but the intervention of the other factors complicates the situation. Things may take a long time to find their new level, or they may suddenly Ho so overnight, as in' the case of various commodities and service* the values and prices of which hay« undergone sudden transformations. The rapid recovery from submarine losses, and the dotting of the seas and stand-by havens with all sorts of steel, iron, and wooden vessels. will presently be followed by a stii: more drastic application of the principle of obsolescence, only the fittest types (economically) surviving j and new types may be evolved along the lines of economic superiority. Will the Imperial Development Commission's anticipation of big steamers in all oceans now begin to be realised, and will harbours become second-rate if they cannot accommodate draughts of more than 30 feet? In America, where the labour-cost looms large, some support is being found for the theory that the big fore-and-aft sailing vessel may in certain trades win a permanent place in competition with coal and oil.