THE SHIP-MONEY WE PAY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1927, Page 10

THE SHIP-MONEY WE PAY

„. '. (To th« Editor.) ' f^ and Bntam/s 25s 7d is a serious slur on our boasted patriotism. It would be

Britain s 2os 7d circulates in Britain: some of it in wages., paid to British ratings, spent or saved and invested by them n Britain; some of it for fuel, produced by British-owned concerns; much of it in shipbuilding and munitions, all, or virtually au, British-produced. Of Australian naval expenditure to a large extent the same is true; the Austrahan navy is manned largely by Australians; the New Zealand Division of the British Navy is manned by New Zeaiauders to a negligible extent. Australia s shipbuilding is not all uone at Cockatoo Island, but some of it is, and much of its recommissiouing. N™, Zealand, on the contrary, gets very little for the money it spends. Every two or three years the warships go to the other side of the world for refitting and overhaul. I doubt if even a launch is built for the Navy in the Dominion; or if one officer in twenty so much as buys his outfit from a Dominion tailor. The niens savings are obligingly remitted to -Britain. Stores of all kinds are imported. Ihe conditions of employment, natural to a country with great social gulfs between caste and caste, are inherently obnoxious to most New Zealanders. The result is that the New Zealand Division,- though undoubtedly of considerable political concern, and probably of some weight as a naval force, is a matter of supreme indifference in the daily lives of New Zealanders. As a social function, I admit its importance, thanks to the channels in which the Navy League and similar bodies direct their energies. I suggest, however, that the 6s 9d a head we pay is, for the reasons given, probably a heavier economic tax than the 25s 7d paid in Britain. You have persistently shut your eyes to the world of difference between a levy that goes right out of the country and one that stays and circulates there. Spend the 18s I.od which represents the difference between the two figures on a naval base in New Zealand, with all the employment and general ton-mg-up of business that will be produced, and it will hurt less than the present 6s 9d. —I am, etc.,

I-™ , ■ ■ A READER. LWe have referred in our leading columns to- the question discussed by our correspondent.—Ed.]